Chuck vs The Brit
by pulchra fabula
Summary: MI6's best, Alex Rider, comes to Burbank CA and joins with Chuck and the team. Set after the first few episode of Season 4 of Chuck and after Crocodile Tears Alex Rider . Please R&R!
1. Chapter 1

Alex stared at the two people across from his in disbelief. They weren't being serious were they?

"Please tell me you're joking," he said. The gray man known as Alan Blunt only looked coldly at him. "Right," Alex went on, seeing only Blunt's face, "I forgot, you don't make jokes."

"Alex," Mrs. Jones, the women to Blunt's left spoke, "this is very important—"

"So is every bloody thing you send me on!" Alex exclaimed, "I'm not doing it!"

"Alex," Blunt said, "this is not a request; the CIA has already been informed of your coming."

Alex sighed in defeat as he threw himself into the chair. MI6 just couldn't leave him alone could they? What would they threaten this time? Alex didn't even want to know.

"When am I being shipped out?" Alex asked dully.

"Your plane leaves tomorrow morning at 9:45, a cab will pick you up at your house," Mrs. Jones told him.

"Where am I going?"

"California."

"Great," Alex mumbled.

"Please see Smithers before you leave," Mrs. Jones said. And with that Alex was dismissed from her office.

Casey, Chuck, and Sarah all stood around the TV.

"General," Sarah asked, "do we really need another spy to help us? I'm sure we can handle it."

"Agent Walker, the decision is mine and mine alone," General Beckman responded.

"Who even is this guy?" Casey asked, speaking up for the first time since General Beckman told the team that an agent from MI6 would be joining them.

"All I can tell you now is that the he is Agent Rider, and he has a 100% success rate with his missions."

"No way," Chuck said.

"Hard to believe, but true," Beckman replied. "Agent Rider will be staying with you Agent Casey, a key to the apartment has already been given to him. I'll be there tomorrow to explain everything; I don't want to have to repeat myself."

"What?" growled Casey.

"Good-bye team." General Beckman signed off.

Sarah, Casey and Chuck looked at each other.

"Beckman's coming here?" Chuck asked. "Wow this guys must be really important."

"Yes," Sarah muttered, "but who is he?"

"Wait, so you have no idea who this Rider dude is?" Chuck asked, "He's not an old war buddy friend or something?" he asked, turning to Casey

"No," Casey replied.

"Sarah?" Chuck asked and turned to where Sarah was at the computer. "What are you doing?"

"Trying to find Alex Rider's file. But I don't have enough clearance to view it. Everything's blocked by so many firewalls. _Classified._"

"So this man is like the best? Like a Secret weapon? Maybe's he's like James Bond!" Chuck babbled. "I don't know whether to be nervous or excited to meet him."

Casey groaned, "I doubt it. And I'm going to have to live with him Chuck, so please be quite."


	2. Chapter 2

**OK, so this is my first Crossover. I've had this idea since the first few ideas of Chuck this season (4) and I'm finally putting it up here. **

**Like I said before, this takes place after Crocodile Tears and during the beginning of Season 4 of Chuck. Any questions that arise, PM or whatever. Hope you enjoy it!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Darn. **

* * *

Alex Rider got off the plane, looking for a man with a sign that said Alex Burton. He spotted it and walked over to the man.

"I'm Alex," he said in his American accent. The guy nodded and motioned Alex to follow him to the car. They were in the town of Burbank, and Alex noted all of his surroundings as he was driven to the house of CIA Agent John Casey.

The driver let him off, and Alex took his large Addis bag and walked over to the house belonging to Casey. He knocked on the door. Silence. He knocked again and waited a few more minutes. Alex sighed and pulled out the key he had been given, inserted it and opened the door. He prayed that Casey wasn't in the shower or something, because that would be awkward. He walked into the house, and saw a scrawled note on the table. He picked it up.

_Hello Mr. Rider, _

_I hope you make yourself at home here, we are very happy to be with one of England's best. John Casey will be home from his job later, around 4:30, so we can meet later. Until then, please make yourself comfortable and help yourself to any food in the fridge._

_Until later, _

_Sarah Walker_

Alex read it and decided to take Sarah's advice. He walked over to the fridge and opened it. He scowled as he studied its contents. It wasn't very full. He checked the freezer. Frozen food. Fantastic. He did see leftovers, so he got those out and popped them in the microwave. As he waited for them, he explored the house. It was pretty small, but if only a single man was living there, he could understand it. The bed was made, and everything was in order. He was definitely a military man. Alex then checked the house using a bug finder, using a Nintendo DS that Smithers gave him, similar to the one he used on his first mission for MI6. He did a sweep on the house and then sat down on the couch while he ate the leftovers from the fridge. Alex checked his watch. It was 3:25. He had a little over an hour until Casey came home. He already looked at the files of the team he would be working with, so he had no pressing spy matters to do. He decided to be like a normal teenage and watch TV. Alex grabbed the remote and began flicking through the channels. He found that _Terminator 2_ was on, so he stretched out on the couch and watched the movie. Before he knew it he was asleep from the jet lag.

Casey opened the door and walked into his house. He stopped as he heard a noise coming from the living room. He grabbed his gun from his pocket and walked cautiously into the room. Chuck's eyes widened slightly, but he silently followed Casey around the house. When Casey reached the living room, he stopped, and Chuck came to a halt as well next to him. A young boy was sleeping on the couch, and the television was on. Casey growled and reluctantly stowed the gun away.

"Are you going to wake him?" Chuck asked.

"Yes," Casey replied.

"Are you going to hurt him?" Chuck clarified.

"I am calmly going to wake him and ask him why he is sleeping on my couch, and then I am going to get him the hell out of here before Agent Rider gets here," Casey testily replied.

"Alright, whatever," Chuck said, giving up all hope on Casey.

Casey walked over to the sleeping child and placed a hand on his shoulder. At the touch, the boy's eyes flew open and he grabbed Casey's arm and twisted it behind his back. He kept a firm hold on Casey's arm, and continued to twist it painfully when he felt Casey resisting. Chuck could only stand there, watching the pain evident on Casey's face, although the tough spy tried to hide it.

"What do you want?" the boy asked viciously.

"Who are you? And what do you want?" was Casey's only reply.

"Why do you care?" the boy shot back, extremely defensive.

"You are in my house," Casey spat, "maybe that's why I care."

That stopped the boy from continuing to hurt Casey momentarily. "You're Agent John Casey of the CIA?" he questioned.

"How… how did you know that?" Chuck asked, speaking for the first time since the boy had awakened. The boy looked at Chuck. He glanced between the two men and let go of Casey, but not before grabbing the gun out of Casey's pocket.

"I'm Alex Rider," the boy replied with a British accent, throwing himself back down on the couch.

"Um…what?" were the only words Chuck was able to say. Casey just stared.

"My name is Alex Rider," Alex repeated, looking up at the two men from his position on the couch as though they were idiots.

"You're Agent Rider?" Casey asked in disbelief at the same moment Chuck said, "But you're just a kid!" Alex simply nodded.

"Yeah, I'm Agent Rider, with MI6, and yes, I'm just a kid," he tonelessly replied. Chuck and Casey continued to look at him in disbelief.

"Wait here," Alex sighed, "I'll get something that will help prove who I am. And then I'll also get the stuff I need to deliver to your Miss Beckman and then she can do whatever the hell she wants." He said the last bit in an annoyed and bitter voice, but neither Chuck nor Casey noticed it.

"I'm coming with you," Casey told him, the distrust clear in his voice and visible in his face. The boy just rolled his eyes and sighed again.

"Sure, whatever makes you happy," Alex replied sarcastically getting up off the couch.

"And I'd like my gun back, thanks," Casey sternly said and stretched his hand out.

"I'm sure you have others to use for now," Alex said pointedly and placed the gun in his own pocket after checking the safety.

"My guns aren't toys! You don't know how to properly use one so give it back now!" Casey growled at him, standing over the boy.

Alex shrugged and smirked at Casey, unfazed, and made no move to hand over the gun. "When I see ID or proof, you get it back," he told Casey, staring into the man's furious face without blinking. "Now let's go prove I'm really me, shall we?" And Alex headed off to the guest room that already stored his things.

Casey and Chuck, caught off guard by this British boy looked at each other in obvious disbelief. Casey made to follow Alex into the guest room, but the young spy was already back. In his hand were two envelopes.

* * *

**Yea! OK, so I hope you enjoyed it. Please review! It makes me a happy person! :) **


	3. Chapter 3

Alex held out the envelopes, silently daring Casey to take them, a smirk still in place on his face. Casey growled and reached out to grab the envelopes.

"Don't open the one addressed to Beckman," Alex stated.

"I know," Casey said shortly, as he laid the envelope for Beckman on the coffee table. He opened the other envelope and placed the contents on the table. It was simply a piece of paper with 2 series of numbers on it.

"It will allow you to bypass a firewall or two," Alex said noticing Casey's confused look. "Don't bother trying to hide the fact that you were annoyed that you could not find out any more information about me. My file is very classified, so Mrs. Jones felt that this would help you out a bit, and reassure you more. Oh," he added, pulling something out of his back pocket, "here's my school ID. Don't I look lovely?" he asked sarcastically.

Casey looked at the picture, and then back at the boy sitting in front of him. The same face, blonde hair, and brown eyes looked back at him from the boy sitting on his couch and the ID card. They were identical except that the former's eyes seemed to serious for a child; it seemed as if they had been witness to too much.

"How does this prove who he is?" Chuck asked.

"It doesn't," Casey curtly replied.

"Well then, we'll just have to rely on good old fashioned instinct," Alex told them. He tried to hide the smirk that was threatening to appear on his face.

"And if my instinct is telling me to shoot you right now?" Casey questioned, sneering slightly.

"Well I have the gun," Alex stated. "But if your instinct was telling you to shoot me, you would. However, you know that I'm telling the truth, or you at least believe me enough because you haven't gotten another gun to shoot me. Yet."

Casey sighed. "I'm going to take you to Beckman, but if you try any funny business…" he let the warning trail off.

"Don't worry sir, I'll behave," Alex told him, faking innocence. Casey glared at him, but the boy simply smiled. Casey turned back to Chuck and rolled his eyes.

"Chuck, call Sarah," Casey ordered, "and you," he looked at Alex, "give me back my gun and get your butt in the car now!"

Alex looked at Casey and shrugged. He handed over the gun and walked out the door.

"Chuck," Casey grabbed Chuck's arm, "watch that kid! I'll be out in a second."

"Going to check for bombs and bugs?" Chuck questioned, slightly nervous.

"You and I don't know what this little rug-rat did unsupervised. I'm not taking any chances," Casey said.

"Alright," Chuck nodded, "but hurry up!" Casey nodded in affirmation and Chuck walked out the door, dialing Sarah.

"Hey," Chuck said into his cell phone, but keeping an eye on Alex, "Sarah? Casey and I are on our way with Agent Rider." A pause. "Oh everything's just fine." Another pause. "You'll see for yourself in about ten minutes. OK Sarah, bye." Chuck hung up his cell phone and noticed Alex was watching him. Chuck shuddered; Alex's eyes unnerved him. Alex raised an eyebrow.

"Just get in the car please," Chuck told him.

Alex smirked at him. "It's locked."

Chuck groaned. It was going to be a long ride with this kid.

* * *

Sarah hung up the phone and turned to face General Beckman. "They are on their way over now," she told her superior. Beckman nodded, not saying a word. She and Sarah had not exchanged any words except for greetings. Sarah had once tried to ask General Beckman about the mysterious Agent Alex Rider, but had received no answer from the head of NSA.

Sarah still could not believe that Beckman herself was here. There had only been a few times that General Beckman had been in their headquarters, dubbed Castle. This Rider guy must be extremely important and powerful for Beckman to be here in the flesh. And on the phone, Chuck seemed so unsure of himself. Sarah herself was slightly unnerved; she could not access Agent Rider's file, and was therefore unable to learn anything about the man they would be working with. She wanted to run a background check; they didn't need another Shaw incident. She was edgy, she wanted Agent Rider to come so that she could ask him a few questions.

* * *

**Hope people are enjoying it! **

**Please review and let me know what you think!**


	4. Chapter 4

"Why are we at a BuyMore?" Alex asked.

"CIA/NSA headquarters," Casey grunted as a way of explanation.

"How do you manage to keep everyone out?" Alex questioned.

"What do you mean?" Chuck asked the boy. Alex looked blankly at him. "This is an actual working BuyMore. The CIA headquarters is underneath. You get there using a secret door and passageway," Chuck explained. "That way we can remain extremely secret and low key."

"Much cooler and much more believable than the Royal and General Bank or the Creative Ideas Animation," Alex commented.

"What?" Chuck asked, confused.

"Nothing," Alex replied, looking out the window, "just other covers for government spy headquarters." Chuck nodded as if this explained everything, but he was even more confused. Which government was the kid talking about? And how did he know of these places?

They got out of the car and walked into the BuyMore; Alex taking in his surroundings.

"Chuck," a short Indian man called, "Hey Chuck, would you like to hear about this great idea that Jeff and I have?" He pointed to a crazy looking man behind him.

"Actually Lester, I'm a little busy at the moment," Chuck began, and Lester noticed Alex for the first time.

"Well, Chuck, who's this?" Lester asked.

"It's uh…" Chuck stuttered.

"Hello," Alex said, with barely a trace of his British accent, "I'm Alex, I'm staying with my Uncle John." He held out his hand for Lester to shake. Lester reached out and shook it, thinking very hard.

"Uncle John…" realization suddenly dawned on his face. "You're Casey's nephew?" Lester managed to choke out. He looked over at Casey, who was scowling.

Alex nodded, "Yep. I'm staying with my Uncle John because my parents are going someplace to write a book or something. I didn't want to spend my summer vacation" Alex was careful to say vacation, and not holiday, "up in Alaska, so my mom called in a favor from Uncle John," Alex lied smoothly.

Chuck stared in admonishment at the British child. If he didn't know any better, he would have believed every word of the boy's story. Even Casey looked slightly shocked for a minute, but he recovered quickly.

"We're going to give Alex a tour of the BuyMore now," Chuck told the two men, glancing at Casey. "We'll see you guys later. Bye." Casey ushered Chuck and Alex away from Jeff and Lester to the back of the store.

"What the hell was that?" Casey hissed, grabbing Alex's arm and turn the boy so that they were looking in each other's eyes. Alex simply yanked his arm out of Casey's grip and gazed coldly at him.

"My cover," Alex replied. Casey growled, but said nothing.

"Let's go," Chuck said at a small attempt to ease the tension, glancing around. Alex shrugged and followed Chuck down the secret stair to the headquarters.

Sarah watched as she saw Chuck descend the stairs, but here eyes widened in shock as a teenage boy came down the stairs after Chuck, followed by a grim Casey.

* * *

"Hey Sarah," Chuck nervously said. Sarah could only stare at the fair-haired boy walking down the stairs. He barely spared her a glance as he walked over and tossed an envelope onto a nearby table. He then threw himself down in a chair across from Beckman.

"Alex Rider," Beckman said, somewhat stiffly, getting up from her chair and going to the table to retrieve the envelope. She opened it and glanced back at the contents. She then walked back to her chair and sat down. She addressed Alex. "It's a …pleasure to meet you."

Alex looked at her a minute before replying. "Sorry, but the feeling isn't mutual."

Chuck, Casey, and Sarah stared at the boy, appalled by what he had just said. The General looked affronted and gaped at him, silently fuming at the lack of respect that he showed.

"You know," Alex said in an off-hand way, "You're a lot shorter than Joe Byrne but I guess you're pretty intimidating in your own way." Beckman stared open-mouthed at the boy. "And," Alex continued, "the BuyMore doesn't scream CIA, so clearly you must be doing something right." The three agents were still gasping at the boy. Beckman opened her mouth as if to say something, but closed it quickly. There was a silence that descended upon the room. The quiet was broken by a low vibrating noise. Chuck, Casey, and Sarah looked at each other, then at General Beckman. The four adults then looked at Alex, who was taking his cell phone out of his pocket and answering the call.

"Hello," he answered. "Hey Jack…yeah, I'm fine…I'm sorry," a sigh, "…no I didn't…Jack I swear…is it really that hard to believe me?" A laugh. "Fine, maybe it is… ok…Jack, I got to go, I think I'm supposed to be listening… yes…Jack, I promise that I won't blow anything up without good reason…fine…yes, I promise I'll behave… alright Jack, I promise I will…Bye." Alex hung up the phone and looked at those staring at him.

"Who was that?" Casey asked.

"Why were you talking to them?" Sarah added.

"Jack, she's my housekeeper," Alex replied as if that cleared things up. He saw Chuck's questioning look. "Yeah, Jack's a girl. She's American and I don't know what Jack stands for." Chuck nodded in a slight understanding.

"Alright, enough," General Beckman finally spoke, recovering from the shock of Alex's rudeness. "Alex Rider, welcome. It seems that you have met Joe Byrne, head of the CIA.

"Yep," Alex replied casually.

"Well, I would have thought that you would have been taught to show proper respect to your superiors," she said, her eyes flashing dangerously.

Alex laughed, a reaction which Beckman wasn't expecting. "Look Miss Beckman—"

"General," she corrected, throwing him a look which he ignored

"Whatever," Alex replied, "General Beckman, I don't respect authority figures of any government agency. Just ask Blunt or Mrs. Jones. The other day, right before I found out I was coming here, I screamed at Blunt for about twenty minutes, and it doesn't really seem bother him anymore. One thing I feel that you should know is I don't like being used. I'm used by Blunt, therefore he's not my favorite person in the world. Word of advice; if you want my help—deal." The adults only gaped at the boy. He smirked at them and sat back in his chair.

"So…" the boy said, still smirking, "did you take over for Byrne or something?"

"General Beckman is head of the NSA, not CIA," Casey said through gritted teeth.

"They're all the same," Alex commented, "all over the world."

"They're not—" Casey began, but was cut off by Alex.

"Anyway," Alex said, ignore the death look he was getting from Casey, "is someone going to explain to me why I'm spending my summer holiday here?"

"You are here," General Beckman said in a steely voice, obviously annoyed at the British teenager, "because we need someone like you in order to gather information on a very powerful man. We were told you were the best." The way she said the last statement implied that she disagreed. The boy allowed his own grin to widen. "This man is an international arms dealer, and he has recently be selling and acquiring large amounts of Uranium and other deadly chemicals used in making nuclear bombs. We don't know who they plan on targeting, but one of the senior members feels that with that amount of chemicals and quantity, he could be aiming to destroy any of the most powerful cities in the world."

"And then 'fix the world' and 'make it better'" Alex added sarcastically, shaking his head. He laughed, a hallow laugh which startled the others in to room. "Can't any of these maniacs get any more creative?" he muttered, rolling his eyes.

"Excuse me?" Sarah asked.

"I mean," Alex turned to look at the older agents, "hasn't the whole idea of nuking a country for the purpose of trying to fix it grow old really fast? Or maybe It's just me…" he added as an afterthought, seeing the confused looks on the others faces. "Yeah…just me," he confirmed a tad bitterly. "So where do I fit in?" he asked.

"We need you to pose as Casey's son," Beckman said, all business. "We need you for a simple recon mission. You and Casey will attend a restaurant where we believe a deal will be made. You two will be placed at a nearby table, and a bug will be placed in order to hear their conversation. And would you two at least try to act like father and son," Beckman implored.

"Yes General," Casey responded, while Alex simply nodded.

"Alright, if that's all—" Beckman began.

"No General," Alex said coldly, "that is not all. You see, the first time I worked for Byrne and the CIA, he told me that I was simply need as an object for a believable cover for a simple recon mission. He told me that there was nothing to worry about, I wouldn't be in any danger. Guess what? He lied. I was nearly killed multiple times on that single mission alone, the least of which was a Great White Shark. If you are lying to me, I swear I will walk out right now. Or maybe I'll just kill you." There was no humor in Alex's voice and there was a deadly glint in his eyes. No one moved. Alex waited for Beckman's reaction.

"I have told you everything," Beckman said after she recovered. "However, Blunt and Byrne seemed to think that you would help us neutralize the threat, if there is one, as it could save millions of lives."

Alex swore under his breath. They were counting on his conscience to kick in and tell him to save the innocents. He looked at Beckman and shrugged his shoulders. "I'll see if I can fit it into my schedule," he told her. She scowled and glared at him. "Are you disappointed with me general?" Alex asked, hiding a smirk from appearing from his face.

"I had expected more from what I had read on your file," Beckman stonily replied.

"My file mentions that I'm a reluctant spy," Alex reminded her. "Emphasis on the reluctant part."

Beckman simply got up and glared coldly at him. "Good day Mr. Rider," she said as she exited headquarters.

* * *

**Alright, so this was long, but I don't know if all my chapters will be this long. I actually have handwritten a lot of this story, so chapters vary greatly. **

**Alex may seem a little OOC at points, but this is how I picture him after Crocodile tears. **

**Lastly, pretty please review! Thanks! :) **


	5. Chapter 5

Alex looked at the other agents as General Beckman left the CIA/NSA base. They were unhappy with him; it was clearly written on their faces. Alex sighed. He was mad at Blunt for making him take time off of his summer holiday just to eat a dinner! There had to be more to this mission, or he doubted he would be here. Alex sighed again, frustrated with himself, Blunt, Beckman, and whoever this arms dealer was, for dragging his back into this mess. This tangled web of spies and lies. He pulled his iPod out of his pocket and inserted his headphones in his ears.

As expected, the three older agents rolled their eyes at Alex's teenage behavior and, ignoring him, turned to each other. They started to whisper among themselves. Alex allowed himself a small smile as he went to his Audio Playlist and selected the song _Listen to the Music_ by the Doobie Brothers. It was a song the Jack often sang around the house, and, therefore, Alex found he liked it. Because the iPod was a gift from Smithers, and had some surprises. The playlist was called "audio" which meant "I hear" in Latin. And was playing _Listen to the Music_, Alex was able to hear conversations via the iPod and headphones. Smithers thought that he was very clever and original with the iPod, and Alex had smiled at how animated the man was when he told all about the iPod's functions.

So while the three older agents thought Alex was listening to popular music of the normal teen, he was actually listening to the conversation that they were having.

"—snot-nosed little brat," Casey was saying.

"Could he really be with MI6?" Chuck asked.

"He is a bit…obnoxious," Sarah stated, "but I think he is. Did anyone else notice how he said the 'first time' he worked for Joe Byrne? That implies that the CIA has used him more than once. I just wish we knew exactly what he's done with the CIA."

"Wait," Casey said, reaching slowly into pocket and withdrawing a single sheet of paper. He then handed it to Sarah. "The kid said that this would allow us to get past a firewall or two."

Sarah grabbed the sheet and walked over to the computer, followed by Casey and Chuck. Alex watched them out of the corner of his eye. Sarah began typing and soon found what she wanted. She entered the first set of numbers. Chuck, who was looking over her shoulder, along with Casey, began to read aloud what had appeared on screen.

"Alex Rider, 15, has successfully completed 8 of 8 missions. He has worked with MI6, CIA, and ASIS." That was all there was for Agent Rider. Alex watched them. Each name of a government agency was a link to see what work he had done with them. Alex had given Casey the password to access the CIA link. However, the three agents at the computer didn't know that. Alex silently walked over to the computer, putting his iPod away as he went. None of the agents noticed that he had come up behind them.

"The second set of numbers will allow you to access the CIA link," Alex quietly told them. Chuck visibly jumped, while Sarah and Casey simply stiffened. Sarah clicked on the word 'CIA'. She inserted the password and read aloud from the computer screen. "A. Rider has worked with the CIA on two different occasions. The first was a Skeleton Key investigating General Sarov. The second was investigating Nikolei Drevin and Project Ark Angel on Drevin's private island. This led to Rider becoming involved with ASIS."

Alex wanted to smile at their shocked expressions, but refrained from doing so. "Skeleton Key is where I was almost fish food," Alex told them, unable to hold back a grin at their shocked expressions. Alex could see Sarah trying to remember if she knew anything about Skeleton Key. She was smart though, Alex had to admit, because instead of click on link on his file, which was blocked, she inserted it into the search to get broader results. Alex and the others silently read off the screen as a summary of Skeleton Key came up.

_Skeleton Key, an island located just off Cuba, was home to former Russian General Alexei Sarov. Sarov planned on placing a nuclear bomb at __Murmansk in order to awaken Russians to how horrible life was in their country. Sarov planned on returning to Russia and restoring it once again to Communism and therefore making to a world power. Four members of the CIA perished on this mission, but an Agent from Britain's MI6 was able to gather information and diffuse the nuclear bomb. Sarov shot himself in the heart after the bomb was diffused._

The three Americans gazed at Alex in shock.

"You diffused a nuclear bomb?" Chuck asked, amazed. Alex nodded.

"How?" Sarah asked, her voice betraying how surprised she was.

"I pulled out the activation card," Alex replied, as though it was the most obvious thing to do.

"How did you manage to stay alive in order to deactivate the bomb?" Casey questioned, not showing that in was very impressed by the child in front of him.

"Erm…" Alex looked uncomfortable.

"It's not classified, so tell us," Sarah ordered. Alex realized that the three agents had moved so he was covered from all sides. He could get away, but that probably wasn't the best thing to do on his first day here. He sighed.

"Well, I was flown across the Atlantic to Russia against my will, handcuffed to a fence, managed to get out of the handcuffs and get the bomb and disable it, and then I went home." Alex said this rather quickly. The three agents stared at him, shocked.

"You were kidnapped?" Sarah seemed slightly concerned.

Alex shrugged, "It's happened before. A lot actually." He gave a hallow laugh.

"Did Sarov really kill himself?" Casey questioned, eyes narrowing at the child. "Or did you?"

Alex blushed. "He did."

"You do seem to sure about that," Casey said warningly.

"No, I didn't shoot him," Alex growled aggressively.

"Then what happened?" Casey pressed. "Why did Sarov kill himself rather than you after the bomb was terminated?"

"I told him something that made him want to die," Alex ducked his head to avoid looking at the agents.

"What did you say?" Chuck asked, intrigued. Alex shook his head and remained silent.

"What did you tell General Sarov?" Casey growled. Alex murmured something that no one could here.

"What was that?" Casey forcefully asked. "No one could hear you."

Alex looked up, blushed, and cleared his throat. "I uh…I told him that I'd rather be dead than have a father like him," he quickly told them. His sentence was met with silence and confused looks. He sighed, but explained. "Sarov wanted to adopt me because I reminded him of his dead son. When I said I'd rather be dead, I guess he just snapped and kill himself."

"He…" Sarah seemed at loss for words.

"Crazy, right?" Alex commented softly. Chuck heard him.

"A little," Chuck replied, and Alex gave a hallow smile.

"How did he get close enough to you to think you were his dead son?" Casey asked.

Alex looked at the man. "Classified." Casey looked ready to murder Alex where he sat. Thankfully, before Casey could be, well, Casey, Chuck's cell phone rang.

"Hello?" Chuck answered it. "Hey Morgan…I see…they did what?… oh no…be right up." He hung up the phone and looked at Casey. "Trouble upstairs," Chuck told them, and Casey grunted.

"Come on kid," Chuck said, and Alex obediently followed Chuck and Casey up the stairs, although he was slightly confused as to why it was their problem.

[][][][][][][][]

Alex and Casey got home late, due to the fact that Sarah had everyone go out to eat at a restaurant. Alex fell asleep straight away, tired from his day and jet lag. Casey check to make sure that the boy was really asleep before calling Chuck and Sarah over.

The three agents sat around the table discussing one Alex Rider. At dinner the kid had barely spoken, and seemed to pay more attention to his surroundings than the people at the table with him. Any time they spoke to them he either ignored them or gave one word answers.

Sarah came into Casey's apartment with a slight smile on her face. She sat down with Chuck and told her semi-good news. "I was able to find a little more information on our mysterious agent," she stated. "In addition to being involved with Sarov and Drevin he has also been involved with Herod Sayle, a Dr. Grief, and Damian Cray. I could not get information about what he did exactly; only that he had a hand in bring them down."

Wow," Chuck said. "That's impressive." Sarah nodded.

"That's only five," Casey stated. Chuck and Sarah looked at him. "That's only 5 mission, accounted for." He held up a finger for each name he said. "Sarov, Drevin, Sayle, Grief, Cray. His file said he has completed 8 missions. That leaves three unaccounted for. The one with ASIS could possibly be another, but we're still short information."

"Do you think General Beckman knows about him?" Chuck asked.

"She's got to," Casey gruffly replied."No matter what, an Agent's files are given to the head of an agency. Whether she chooses to share them with others is up to her."

"You sure?" Chuck asked.

"Yes," this time it was Sarah who answered. "Beckman wasn't at all surprised that Alex was a teenager, the three of us were shocked. And the way she said that she had expected more? She definitely knows more about Alex then she's telling us."

"Should we trust the kid?" Casey asked.

"I think we should," Chuck announced. "And, if it turns out he's the bad guy, well…we'll fix that later." He mentally winced at the thought of Casey "fixing it". Sarah and Casey nodded their consent.

"We should test him soon," Sarah said. "Get a taste of what he can do. Casey grunted in approval, with a smile on his face. Chuck just nodded.

"Well," Chuck said, glancing at the clock. "we should probably go now. See you tomorrow Casey." Casey nodded in reply as Sarah and Chuck left and went across the housing complex to their own condo. Casey checked all of his alarms systems before checking on the boy spy. Then he went to bed.

* * *

**Sorry for the long delay. Crazy break, had trouble finding time to type this all. **

**Hope you enjoyed it!**

** Please Review; it makes my day!**


	6. Chapter 6

Alex woke up at 10:30 the next morning. He yawned as he got out of bed. It took him a moment to remember where he was, but the memories from the day before explained why he was in the States. Alex walked into the kitchen, looking for breakfast. He saw a post-it note on the fridge.

_Alex,_

_I brought you over a bagel, it's on the counter. Butter and jelly are in the fridge. I'll pick you up later. _

_-Sarah W_

"Can't I just have jam?" Alex wondered aloud to no one, missing England very much. Nevertheless, Alex opened the refrigerator to find a stick of butter and grape jelly on the self. He then searched through the cupboards until he found a toaster. He plugged it in and placed the bagel inside. As it toasted, Alex went back into his room and got out the files of the three agents he would be working with on this mission. When the bagel was ready, he buttered it and sat down at the table to re-read the files and think over what he had observed about the agents.

_Agent John Casey, NSA. Formerly known as Alex Coburn, John Casey joined the NSA Black Ops team at age 23 and has been on a [classified] number of missions since then. Was promoted to Cornel John Casey and is also known as the "Angel de la Muerte" (Angel of Death) due to his attempts to assassinate the Premier Alejandro Goya of Costa Gravis._

_Expertise includes__: hand-to-hand combat, espionage, tactics, assassinations, and firearms (particularly the sniper rifle). _

Alex smiled to himself. The grim John Casey he met seemed to be exactly like the file described. He could picture people running from Casey screaming "Oh no! It's the Angel of Death!" Casey probably loved the title, Alex mused. He placed the file on the table and began to re-read Agent Walker's file.

_Agent Sarah Walker, CIA. Formerly known as Sam Lisa - and Jenny Burton, Sarah Walker was approached in high school to join the CIA following the arrest of her father by the then Director Graham. She however, continued high school and went on to Harvard University. She spent a year with the Secret Service before joining to CIA. Has been on a [classified] number of missions and is now working with the NSA on the Intersect Operation. _

_Expertise includes__: espionage, hand-to-hand combat, firearms, and knife throwing. Is also a trained pilot. _

Wow, Alex thought. He must have skipped the knife throwing-part. It was bloody brilliant! He could picture Sarah preferring to throw knives rather than hand-to-hand combat. He went back at stared at the sentence where it explained Sarah's recruitment. He was more than a little annoyed. She was allowed to finish high school and college before going back to the CIA. He couldn't even complete one school semester! He growled in frustration and went on the read the file of Charles Bartowski.

_Charles "Chuck" Bartowski, CIA. Bartowski was sent the Intersect (holds all CIA/NSA database information up to clearance level 6) via email from former CIA agent Bryce Larkin. He has just recently become an agent and works closely with John Casey (NSA) and Sarah Walker (CIA) in order to become an exceptional spy. The intersect allows him to "flash" and either gain government secrets or advanced fighting skills. _

_Expertise include__: Computer expert and genius level intellect, Engineering and Electronics expert, espionage and self-defense training, strong marksmanship skills. Intersect provides instantaneous access to high level class government information (level 6 clearance) and advanced skills via "flashes". _

Alex thought about Chuck, the human intersect. He thought about Chuck had been dragged into the world of spies because of one email. However, Chuck wanted to become a great spy. Alex smiled to himself at the irony of it; Chuck wanting to be a spy, but being deterred, while he didn't want to be a spy but Blunt and Jones continued to encourage him. Maybe he could get Chuck to take over for him. No doubt Blunt would be thrilled.

Alex sighed. All he wanted to do was to go back to England, be with Jack, and try to impress girls with Tom. But instead, he was in a stranger's house in Burbank CA., here for who knows what reason! Shaking his head at his own stupid luck, Alex got up from the table and went back into his room. He changed into shorts and a collared t-shirt. He went to the small bag full of things Smithers had given him. Alex took out the iPod and a coarse rope bracelet than many American teenagers wore. He decided he didn't need to other stuff just yet, so he once again zipped the bag. Alex was quite pleased with his new toys. The iPod could do almost anything, such and listen to conversations, and the bracelet had a small knife hidden in it. Alex took the key he had been given and left the house, locking the door behind him.

"Who are you?" a voice asked. Alex turned, expecting a fight, but was surprised to see that a tall handsome man, dressed like a surgeon, was the speaker.

"Wh.." Alex began.

"I asked, 'who are you?'" the surgeon repeated in a more urgent tone.

"I'm Alex, John Casey's nephew," Alex told the man, putting on his innocent teenager act.

"Casey never said…" began the man, but Alex cut him off.

"My Mom and he don't get along well," he said with a shrug, "but she called in a favor, so here I am.

The man nodded, understanding. "I'm Devon Woodcomb, a friend a Casey's and Chuck's Brother-in-law. I live across the way. I'm assuming you met Chuck, right?" Devon asked.

"I did," Alex said to the man, relaxing to portray a normal teenager.

"Awesome," Devon said. "Listen, I just got off work, but do you need a lift anywhere?"

Alex hesitated; suspicious of why this man was offering him a ride, "well…" he began.

He was interrupted by Sarah Walker, who walked into the square. She looked at him, then at Devon. She wasn't drawing a gun or knives, so Alex figured that maybe Devon wasn't that bad.

"Hey Sarah," Devon greeted, "why didn't Casey tell Ellie and I that his nephew was staying with him. You know that we would have brought him over all of the extra food that we have."

"I'm sure you would have, and as for why Casey didn't tell you, well he didn't mention it to Chuck or myself either," Sarah replied. "No one knew Alex here was coming."

"I was going to give him a ride somewhere," Devon told her, "Casey should have left him stuff to do.

"Yes he should have," Sarah agreed.

"Yeah, well, typical Uncle Casey," Alex said, pretending to sigh.

"Alex," Sarah announced, "Casey sent me over to pick you up. But in future, you can always trust Devon and Ellie along with Chuck and myself. We, along with Casey, want to make sure you have an enjoyable stay."

Alex nodded at her, realizing that Sarah was subtly informing him that Devon and Ellie would not harm him. Well thank god for that. And he was sure that Ellie and Devon actually try to make him feel welcome; he got the feeling that Beckman would just as soon be eaten by rapid bunnies than make him happy here.

"Thanks," the boy told Devon, "I'll remember that." Devon nodded.

"See ya around bro," Devon called as he let himself into a house across the complex square.

Alex held back a smile. This guy had called him "bro" and they had barely met. He seemed to be kind, friendly, and genuine. Everything that a spy was not. Alex waved goodbye and turned to find Sarah staring at him.

"We're going to Castle," she said, beginning to walk back to the car.

* * *

**Hey, sorry for the delay. In case anyone was wondering, I got the information about Casey and Walker from **

**IMPORTANT: Sarah and Alex are going to play a "question game" i have a few, but if anyone's interested, leave a question you want Sarah or Alex to answer. Thanks! **

**Please review! :)**


	7. Chapter 7

Previously: "_We're going to Castle," she said, beginning to walk back to the car.

* * *

_

"Castle?" Alex questioned.

"Headquarters," Sarah responded.

"You call your headquarters Castle?" Alex asked. Sarah nodded. "How very James Bondish," Alex commented as they both got into the car. "And do you say 'My name is Walker. Sarah Walker"' Sarah's eyes widened at the sudden appearance of Alex's real accent. "And give yourself numbers and such?" Alex's American accent was back again. "Double-0-9, 8, and 6?"

Sarah didn't answer him and they finished the drive to the BuyMore in silence. Alex made sure to slam the door of the car as he got out. He followed Sarah into the BuyMore, and stared at the sight of Chuck working behind the Nerd Herd desk.

"You actually have Chuck working here?" he asked astounded. He knew it was a working BuyMore, but he didn't realize that an agent actually worked in it. Sarah nodded.

"He worked here before…" she trailed off.

"…he got the Intersect," Alex finished for her. Sarah turned sharply.

"Be quiet! And how did you know?"

"Files," Alex simply said as a way of explanation.

"And exactly how much did they tell you?" Sarah hissed. "And why can we not view your file?"

"Enough," Alex answered to her first question, "And because you need above a level 6 clearance, which I believe you don't have." He smirked. Then his eyes widened and his mouth hung open. Sarah looked at him nervously before he started laughing hysterically. Sarah found what was causing the spy laughter and allowed herself a small smile. Alex was laughing at Casey, who was stocking the shelves with his signature scowl in place.

"Oh my god," Alex finally breathed, ceasing laughter for a minute. "This is what you meant by work? You actually have Casey work at the BuyMore as well? This is bloody brilliant!" He smiled and waved at Casey, which only served to deepen Casey's scowl.

"I'm going to talk to Chuck for a minute," Sarah told him. "Don't get into any trouble while I'm gone." Alex raised an eyebrow at her as Sarah rolled her eyes and walked over to Chuck. Alex turned around to explore the BuyMore when he bumped into someone.

"Watch where you're going kid," someone told him. Alex found himself looking at Lester. "Alex…" Lester's eyes widened and he trailed off. "Sorry, didn't mean what I said."

"Its fine," Alex told them, trying to figure out why all of a sudden these two idiots were being nice to him.

"You won't say a thing to Casey?" Lester worriedly asked. So that was it, Alex figured. They were afraid of Casey.

"He won't hear a thing," Alex assured them.

"Thanks man," Lester replied, relieved. "Well, we got to get back to work, Jeff and I. Lots to do." Alex watched Jeff and Lester practically scamper off. The Angel de la Muerte certainly had a reputation at the BuyMore, and apparently it extended to family. Alex smiled. That rep could come in handy. The employees would let him do whatever he wanted because he was Casey's nephew. Perfect. Tomorrow a few of Smithers' gadgets would be placed around the BuyMore. Alex once again allowed himself a small grin. At least this mission seemed pretty easy. No one had tried to kill him yet, which was always a positive sign. Alex glanced around the BuyMore, looking for possible threats. Sure enough, it seemed to be a normal branch. Major Geeks and Nerds ran the store. No one acted like a spy, with the exception of Casey; he just looked slightly out of place. Even Chuck could have fooled many MI6 agents—but then again, Chuck really did work here.

"Follow me," Sarah was back and leading him towards the manager's office. Alex silently followed her. She stopped in front of the door and knocked.

"Morgan? It's Sarah?" she called.

"Come on in," Morgan's voice replied. Sarah opened the door and walked in, Alex following her.

"Morgan," Sarah began, "this is Alex, our British friend." Morgan's eyes widened.

"No way," he said, "he's…he's with MI6?" Alex and Sarah both rolled their eyes, but for different reasons.

"Morgan," Sarah warned.

"Right, right, sorry," Morgan stammered. He turned to faced Alex. "You're really from…Britain?" It was clear what he really meant, but Alex tactfully refrained from rolling his eyes.

Alex wanted to make a snarky comment, like "no, I'm from Mars", but he decided against it. Instead he smirked and held out his hand as he spoke in his British accent and said "Rider. Alex Rider." Morgan shook his hand and stared at him in awe. Sarah raised an eyebrow at his James Bond impersonation.

"Uh…wow..hi," Morgan said. "I'm Agent Morgan Grimes, part of Team Bartowski." Alex shot Sarah a look of slight disbelief at this statement. She nodded at him. Alex gave her "a look". "Later" she mouthed. Morgan did not notice the exchange between the two seasoned agents.

"Hello Morgan," Alex said as Morgan was looking expectantly at him. "Sorry to cut this short, but we need to go. And" Alex slipped back into his American accent to the amazement of Morgan, "while I'm here, I'm Casey's nephew. Please try to remember that."

"Of course," Morgan profusely told Alex. "I swear I won't forget." Alex fixed him a cold, calculating stare.

"You'd better not say anything, or else," Alex warned, his piercing eyes staring at Morgan. Morgan gulped and kept nodding as Alex led the way out of the office. Sarah followed Alex outside, bidding good-bye to Morgan.

"Was that really necessary?" Sarah asked Alex sharply once they were away from the door. Alex nodded in affirmation, but said nothing else. Sarah led him down into Castle in silence. Alex followed her into a room furnished with only a simple table and chair.

Alex stopped dead in the doorway and Sarah turned back to look at him. He had a magnificent death-glare on his face and his arms were folded across his chest. "And who are we interrogating?" he asked her in a deadly voice. "Me?"

"We are not interrogating," Sarah stressed the last word, "We just want to ask you a few questions—"

"That's what interrogating is," Alex hissed at her.

"—but we don't want Morgan to come down in the middle of it nor do we want the General to suddenly appear on screen. We brought you here because we thought you'd like a private room," Sarah finished. Alex glared at her. "I swear that we will not hurt nor attempt to injure you in any way," Sarah told him, seeing the look on his face.

Alex silently weighed his options. He had the concealed knife which the others knew nothing about. If anything were to happen…

"Ready?" a gruff voice asked as Alex was pushed into the room, starling him from his thoughts. He whirled around to Chuck, Casey, and Sarah looking at him expectantly. Chuck seemed to feel a little guilty about what they were doing; it showed on his face. Furious at being cornered, Alex flung himself in the chair and stared at the three agents, deciding on the best way to escape.

"If you bloody touch me" Alex began, speaking with his native accent, "I will—"

"Shut it kid," Casey growled. "We aren't going to hurt you, I'm sure Agent Walker has told you that. We just need you to answer a few questions."

Alex gave a hallow laugh. "The Angel de la Muerte doesn't want to hurt or kill someone? That kind of goes against the name, doesn't it? I find that hard to believe." Casey had a look of shock registered on his face, but there was a bit of pride in it as well. Chuck and Sarah, however, just looked shocked.

"How…" Chuck began, but was cut off by Casey.

"See?" Casey roughly asked, the small traces of pride and shock had disappeared from his face. "How did you know that?"

"How did you know Chuck was the intersect? And that he couldn't access above a level 6 clearance?" Sarah added.

Alex said nothing, but simply glared at them.

"Answer the damn questions," Casey ordered. "These are the easy ones."

Alex took a moment before answering. "I knew those things from your files."

"How come we can't access all of your file?" Casey asked. Alex looked at Sarah and motioned for her to answer.

"He's above level 6 clearance," she told a dumb-founded Casey. Alex smirked, happy about the effect the information had on Casey.

"Tell us what you've done," Casey ordered, "all of it."

"Classified," Alex replied.

"What additional information can you tell us about Sarov and Drevin?" Sarah asked, trying to get any information about this kid's past from him.

Alex thought for a long moment. "They were both insane," he finally said. When it became clear that no other information was forth-coming, Sarah asked another question.

"How about Sayle, Grief, and Cray?" she asked, hoping to confirm that the boy was involved with them.

"How should I know?" Alex replied, not falling for Sarah's attempt.

"I was told you were involved," Sarah told him.

Alex shook his head. "By whom? You can't trust everything that you hear."

"Classified," Casey smugly said. Alex grimaced and rolled his eyes.

"I know that you have been involved, Alex," Sarah told him, "so you can tell us."

"Alex," Chuck spoke for the first time, "look. I get that you don't want anything to do with us, but we want to fix that. We want to help you." He saw the look on Alex's face. "At least, I do," Chuck amended. There was a long pause.

"They were all insane as well," Alex finally said. "Now I'm done with the questions." He got up and walked over to the door. Unfortunately, Casey was standing in front of it.

"Sit down," Casey said, looking down at him. "We're not done."

Alex lashed out and punched the man hard in the stomach. Casey doubled over in shock and pain.

"We're done," Alex reaffirmed as he walked out the door, leaving three bewildered agents behind in his wake.

* * *

**OK, sorry for the long wait. Midterms coming up and all that good stuff. This was not the question game; that'll be a bit later. **

**Hope you enjoyed it and please review; review make me super happy! **

**:) **


	8. Chapter 8

Sarah came out into the main area furious at Alex. "You cannot attack an agent of the NSA or CIA without a good, valid reason," she screamed at him. Alex just looked back at her with a bored expression on his face. "He did nothing to you," she continued, "You have some nerve! You think that just because you're MI6's special little toy that you can do whatever you want? We wanted to ask you a few simple questions and you freak out and attack Casey—"

Alex cut her off. "Jenny," he said coldly. Sarah froze. Chuck stared wide-eyed at him while Casey looked at the boy in amazement. Sarah kept opening and closing her mouth, trying to collect herself. Alex held up his hand to stop her or the others from saying anything. "Would you like me asking questions about your past Jenny? You don't seem so happy with that name. Or Alex Coburn," Alex Rider now turned to face Casey, who flinched, "care to tell me about your time in the Black Ops?" Casey stared stonily at the child. "See?" Alex said, "You don't feel up to sharing. Therefore, don't make me talk to you about it." Alex sent them a death glare and with those words, Alex turned his back to the other three agents, put in his iPod and blasted the music; Chuck, Casey, and Sarah were able to hear it. The gesture was a clear dismissal, teenager-style.

Sarah stormed out of the room, followed by Chuck and Casey. Alex ignored them leaving, but a hint of a smile played at his features.

[][][][][][][][]

"That…that…kid…" Sarah spluttered. Chuck was shocked; Sarah had never looked this flustered before. He looked over at Casey and saw that the man seemed ready to kill somebody. Chuck gulped. This could get ugly fast.

"Guys," Chuck said into the unnerving silence, "calm down. It's just a kid, a teenager. They're supposed to have attitude. You can't just—"

"Whatever he is, he is not a kid," Casey told Chuck, "he knows more about us than you do! We need to get information out of him. We need to learn if he's dangerous or not."

"I'm going to go with a 'yes' on that one," Chuck remarked. Casey shot him a deadly look and Chuck wisely shut up.

"Information about him isn't going to come easy," Casey stated. "This kid is well guarded; we might be able to pay for information, but the hard part will be finding someone that will talk."

"Actually," Sarah slowly began, "I know an agent that was on Drevin's Island. It had something to do with the man himself and Project Ark Angel, which I think was a British project. Maybe we can find out if he knows anything about Alex. Maybe he met him there."

"Name?" Casey grunted.

"Ed Shulsky."

[][][][][][][][][]

Alex swore. In multiple languages. He was once again listening to the agents' conversation and, unlike last time, he was not happy. Yesterday he had been careless. He had brought up his past when talking with Beckman because his anger clouded his judgment. And now Ed Shulsky, the man who had was sent him into space, was going to talk to Chuck, Sarah, and Casey about him. Alex swore again, cursing his luck. This day couldn't get any worse, and it wasn't even noon.

A ringtone filled the silence. Alex looked over and saw a cell phone on the table. The caller ID read "Ellie". Chuck came into the room a few second later and picked up his mobile. Casey and Sarah walked slowly into the room, both glaring at Alex, who was currently listening to "Highway to Hell" by ACDC. He made sure to blare it from his headphones, smirking at how appropriate it was.

"…of course Ellie," Chuck was saying, "Yeah, I got it, 6:30. Alright El, love you too. See you then." Chuck hung up the phone and turned to the three of them with a serious expression on his face. Alex paused the song, took out his headphones, and looked at Chuck.

"What is it Bartowski?" Casey asked annoyed. "Just tell us already."

"Ellie has invited everyone over for dinner tonight," Chuck announced, "She wants to meet Casey's nephew."

Alex felt like punching something. Or someone. Preferably Blunt. It was always his fault. But unfortunately, Blunt was currently in England making someone else's life a living hell, and Alex was stuck in Burbank, California, so that probably wasn't going to happen. Alex could always hope, though. Crap. At least the news of how much worse he day was about to get affected the others as well; Sarah was grimacing and Casey looked ready to strangle someone.

"Well," Sarah said bravely, the first to break the silence, "we should get our stories and explanations in order. We will also need to fabricate your past a bit."

"Great idea," Chuck spoke quickly, trying to cover the tension and awkwardness. He moved and sat across the table from Alex. Sarah sat next to Chuck. The only seat remaining for Casey was next to Alex. The two of them ignored each other and stared straight ahead.

"Any ideas…" Chuck awkwardly began, but trailed off.

"I already formed a cover, remember?" Alex asked them. "I'm Casey's nephew, my mother and he don't get along, she called in a favor, I got sent here. She's going to Alaska to write about polar bears and I didn't want to go. I already told bits of this story to Jeff and Lester yesterday, and I spoke to Devon Woobcomb—"

"Captain Awesome?" Chuck interrupted, Sarah nodded in confirmation.

"Er…Captain Awesome?" Alex questioned, slightly confused.

"Yeah," Chuck explained, "he says awesome to everything and, he's…well awesome." Seeing Alex's face, Chuck added, "Don't worry, you'll understand after tonight."

"Alright," Alex slowly said.

"Anyway, you cover sound good," Sarah told him after a moment of deliberation. "What is your mother's name? And what about your father?"

"Susan and Peter," Alex replied.

"Ellie will probably want to hear about your life," Chuck told Alex, "so I hope you can provide her with plenty of stories. She enjoys getting to know people," he warned. Sarah frowned and nodded at this statement.

"Don't worry," Alex said nonchalantly, "I'm a good lair. I'm sure I can make something decent up."

"Don't get to cocky kid," Casey sternly told him, and Alex knew his actions earlier had not been forgotten. "These two are civilians and—"

"I know Uncle John," Alex cut him off, sounding like a whiney and exasperated teenager.

"You and I need to act like an uncle and nephew the whole night," Casey went on, ignoring him, "So start acting like my nephew."

Alex rolled his eyes and replied, "And you better act like a believable uncle." Casey turned at glared coldly at him. Alex was unperturbed.

Chuck looked at his watch, "Casey, we got to get back to work!" Casey sighed and followed Chuck back upstairs. Before he went up, he turned back to face Alex.

"Expect us back later and be prepared for an assessment of your fighting capabilities." Alex gave a half-hearted nod, showing he had heard him. Sarah kissed Chuck good-bye and watched as he left. She turned back to Alex once the two men had vanished up the stairs.

"I've got a call to make," she told him, "Excuse me." Alex shrugged his shoulders and nodded, giving off a vibe that he couldn't care less. She left and Alex's eyes narrowed. He once again put on "Listen to the Music" in order to hear what Sarah and Ed Shulsky said about him. Alex mentally prepared himself for the worst.

"Hello?" he heard Sarah say.

* * *

**Heyyy hope every still likes this. Please leave a review; they make me sooo super-happy! **

**love you all! **

**:)**


	9. Chapter 9

**Hey all. So sorry for the long wait. Enjoy!

* * *

**

"Hello? Yes. This is Agent Sarah Walker. I was hoping to speak to Ed Shulsky." Sarah listened to the voice on the other end of the line. "Oh, he's not there? Could you please tell him to please call me when he gets the chance? If he doesn't immediately recall my name, tell him that Lady Elaine wishes to speak with Lord William. Yes. Thank you. Have a pleasant day." Sarah hung up the phone in slight annoyance. Of course Shulsky was out when they needed information. She checked her watch. She had plenty of time to kill with Alex until Chuck and Casey got back.

Casey would be dying to see just how good this kid was. Sarah herself was eager to fight with the boy and see his skills; if he had any. Sarah sighed, trying to think of a way to get information out of Alex. She suddenly got a childish, yet brilliant idea. Confident, she walked back into the main room of Castle where Alex was listening to his iPod. When the boy saw Sarah looking expectantly at him, he took out his headphones.

"What?" he asked, sounding very much like a irate teenager.

"I want to play a game," Sarah began and Alex snorted.

"You want to play a game?" he questioned. Sarah nodded. Alex rolled his eyes.

"Like Monopoly? Or Uno? Or…what's that one Jack hates? Scrabble?"

"No, like a question game."

"A question game?" Alex was on his guard. Sarah noticed, but nodded nonetheless.

"I ask you a random or basic question about yourself and you then ask me one in return. It can be anything; favorite food, color, whatnot. How does that sound?"

"Bloody awful. But if it will pass the time and appease you for a bit, then I guess so."

Sarah smiled at him and began. "Favorite color?"

"Blue. What's yours?"

"Lavender. Favorite subject at school?"

"Maths, I guess. What was yours?"

"English. How come you don't use your accent?

"Because it would give me away. I'm supposed to be trying to blend in, and I doubt that someone related to Casey would randomly dump their kid in America with a brother with whom she hadn't spoken to in years while she goes off and visits another American state."

"You really thought that through."

"Sort of. It just makes sense if you think about it, you know?"

Sarah nodded, "Yes, it does make sense."

"Exactly. Anyway, my turn. How long have you and Chuck been together?"

Sarah was slightly shocked. "About a year."

"Only officially though right? You probably were together before that, but both of you were probably too stubborn to notice."

"Um…" Sarah was unable to think of a way to respond so she decided to just ask Alex another question. "How many girlfriends have you had?"

"What makes you think I've had any at all? I'm only fifteen, after all."

Sarah sighed. "Most teenagers usually have at least one girlfriend by now. Not to mention that you are a good-looking young man. And I'm positive girls over here would swoon over your British accent."

"Yeah, maybe in America that would work, but over in England, everyone has a British accent."

Sarah just barely refrained from rolling her eyes. "Very true. Will you answer my question now?"

Alex furrowed his eyebrows, thinking. "None officially, but I guess one unofficially." He seemed eager to change the subject. "Favorite weapon?" he asked Sarah.

"Knives. What about you?"

"I'm not usually allowed a weapon," Alex responded.

"Oh. Alright then, favorite movie?"

"Probably the Harry Potter movies and the Pirates of Caribbean movies. You?"

"Ms. Congeniality. Favorite animal?"

Alex looked at her and thought about it for a bit. "Don't really have one, but…I guess a hawk. What's your favorite animal?"

"Giraffes, I suppose. What's your almost-girlfriend's name?"

Alex glowered at her. "Sabina. Are you and Chuck going to get married?"

"I…uh…well…you see…" Sarah tried to say something, but failed.

"He hasn't asked yet then? But you'll say yes if he does?"

Sarah mutely nodded. Alex smiled. "Well then I wish you both the best."

Sarah looked taken aback at how cheerful Alex seemed about that prospect.

"Why?" she asked him.

"Why what?" the boy, confused, questioned her.

"Why do you wish Chuck and I the best?"

"Um…because you're getting married," Alex stated as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Don't you usually want married people to have a long and happy and healthy life? Though of course in this profession, that's a rarity," Alex added the last sentence as an afterthought.

"Are your parents divorced?" Sarah blurted out, trying to figure out if the child wished them the best; did his parent's marriage end in a disaster?

"No," Alex sullenly replied.

Another question dawned on Sarah. "Are they alright with you being a spy?"

Alex simply shrugged.

"Do they care?"

Another shrug was Alex's response.

"Where are your parents now?" Sarah, desperate for some sort of concrete answer, asked the boy.

"They're dead," Alex replied shortly.

Sarah was taken aback. "I'm sorry." Alex just nodded to show acknowledgment.

"Do you have any other family?" Sarah persisted, the spy in her dominating her quest to get answers.

"Yeah," Alex replied, "A dead uncle and Jack."

"How did your uncle and your parents die?"

"Classified."

"Really?"

"Fine. Parents in a plane explosion, that wasn't really an accident, but a bomb. My uncle's death really is classified though."

"So I'm going to assume he was a spy as well?"

"Classified."

"And your parents?"

"Classified."

"How did you get involved with MI6?"

"Classified."

What about you isn't classified?" Sarah asked, slightly joking. Alex actually cracked a smile.

"Not much," he replied laughingly, the smile on his face not quite reaching his eyes, but it was there nonetheless. It lit up the childish features on his face; something that Sarah noticed were there for the first time.

"What are you most afraid of?" Sarah asked him. She didn't know why she did it. It was just the in that moment, he seem so much a child, so vulnerable.

The smile slide off of Alex's face as he turned to glare Sarah in the eye. Where did she think she was going with this? Alex did not like to share his personal life information with heartless government agents that would twist and use it to suit their own needs. But the slightly abashed and concerning look on the older agent's face caused Alex to give in.

"Losing Jack or Tom," Alex finally told her. "And your greatest fear?"

Sarah looked him dead in the eye and said, "Losing Chuck."

Alex nodded. "So at least you still have a heart," he commented under his breath to himself. But Sarah heard it. She didn't say anything though, just pondered what it could mean. And that was the end of the question game.

**So I hope you all liked that bit. I'm planning on putting the next chapter up either tomorrow or the next day, so look for that. **

**Side note: Anyone watch Chuck last night? The one where Vivian was introduced? Did anyone else think of Alex when Vivian was told she was being trained since a young age to succeed her father? OMG, I was having a little meltdown, my dad didn't understand why I was so excited. Great episode though, so go check it out if you want! :)**

**And reviews are always appreciated! **


	10. Chapter 10

Sarah glanced back over at Alex. He was sitting at the table, listening to his iPod. Every couple minutes or so his eyes would sweep the room; as if he were trying to locate any threats or dangers present.

He probably is, Sarah mused. Watching the boy the CIA agent actually felt bad for the child. He seemed to have been through so much; it just didn't seem right. Sarah stopped working in order to think about the teenage spy in the room. He looked to be the same as any other normal teenager. He was tan and muscular, with sandy blonde hair and brown eyes. He was a handsome boy, and Sarah could imagine girls having a crush on him. That was why she had found it odd that he did not seem to be close to any girls. Why could that be? As Sarah examined the boy she realized what set him apart from others in his own age group; his eyes. Although Sarah had noticed the seriousness of Alex's eyes before, she didn't realize how sad they were. They were constantly on alert, flickering often to the exits and to herself.

Sarah blushed, realizing that Alex had caught her staring at him. He offered her a tentative smile, but the attempt at warmth did not reach his eyes. A physiatrist would describe Alex as having the eyes of a soldier. A smile did not reach his eyes, the laughter when he laughed at Casey also did not show a small "twinkle" in the boy's eyes.

Sarah knew that large amount of stress, fear, and horrifying events could make the eyes turn that cols. She wondered how much trauma the child had experienced to give him such a hard look. The only definite information was the mission on Skeleton Key. Certainly that particular incident with Sarov didn't help. It must have made quite a negative impact on Alex; seeing someone commit suicide in front of you definitely had an effect on your mental state.

Sarah stole another glance at the boy and met his wary eye. This time it was she who offered a smile. She recalled a comment from the day previously; Alex had mentioned that he had been kidnapped. And he proceeded to say that it happened a lot. It couldn't have happened too many times, could it? And for how long? And the most important question—why? Certainly the incident with Sarov was the only mission where he was directly involved; perhaps he simply went as an accessory for more experience spies, as he was doing now.

Sarah followed Alex with her eyes as he got up and walked around the room a few times, stretching his legs. She tried to dissect his mind and find the answers to her questions and learn more about this British boy. It was fairly obvious that it would take a large amount of time and patience to get Agent Rider to open up. As Alex sat back down, Sarah shook her head, attempting to clear the thoughts of Alex from her head. The boy was a child; he was a tough kid, but nonetheless in too deep. And Sarah didn't want him getting hurt. He seemed to be pretty apt at defending himself, but Sarah made a mental note to tell Casey to go easy on the boy. He wasn't very dangerous, just a teenager playing a deadly game with adults.

[][][][][][][]

Thud. Casey's body hit the floor with a resounding sound. The boy smirked.

"Shall we call it day?" he cheekily asked. "It's nearly supper, and I need a shower."

Casey groaned softly as he got up. Sarah was trying not to allow her face to betray how truly shocked she was, but was failing miserably. Chuck wasn't even trying to be discrete; he visibly flinched when Alex looked at him. Alex raised his eyebrow. Rethinking her thoughts from earlier, Sarah amended them to the truth. The boy was dangerous and could play this deadly game very well.

Chuck watched in awe as the boy left the dojo and went back to the main room, grabbing a water bottle on the way out. His mind rewound everything that he had just seen.

"_Kid," Casey barked coming down the stairs, "Ready to began?"_

_The boy simply nodded in affirmation and dutifully followed Casey to the fighting arena. _

"_Who would you like to spare with first?" Sarah asked Alex, who shrugged. "How about me then?" Sarah wanted to go easy on the child, not for Casey to humiliate him on the first go around. Alex nodded in approval. "Don't go easy on me," Sarah warned, "because I won't go easy on you." The boy didn't know that she actually would. _

"_Ready?" Casey called loudly. "Begin."_

_The boy had moved faster than Sarah thought he would. She barely had time to block the punch that Alex sent her way. Sarah went to knock the boy's feet out from under him, but he leaped over them like he was expecting the move. She stepped forward and threw and fury of punches to Alex, who dodged almost all of them. One did manage to land on his stomach. Alex sent a punch of her own flying towards her face, which she dodged. A kick to the head sent her stumbling, dazed. Alex, taking full advantage of the situation, pinned her arms behind her back as he knocked her to the ground._

"_Do you submit?" he asked, an impish smile threatening to appear on his face._

"_I submit," Sarah said, defeated. Shock spread across her face as Alex helped her up from the ground. Casey had looked down right murderous as Sarah walked off the mat and he walked on._

"_Ready kid?" he growled. "Let's begin." Casey let loose with a vicious fury of punches, quite of few caught Alex, but he managed to block many all the same. He staggered, but quickly recovered. He lashed out and hit Casey in the gut. While the man was doubled over, Alex kicked him and caused him to fall to his knees. Alex pounced and tackled him to the ground. He placed his left hand around Casey's neck as he formed a fist with his right hand and held it right above Casey's face. He was breathing heavy, but there was a triumphant grin on his face. _

"_Shall we spar again?" Alex asked casually as Casey pushed the boy off of him. Casey grunted as he threw a punch and the second fight began. _

Unfortunately, the second fight ended the same as the first, although Casey managed to get in a few more punches the second time around. Chuck thought about how long it would take Casey to get over losing the fight. He sighed. It would sure be an interesting dinner.

Alex had his cell phone out when the three American agents walked into the room. He put it away and looked up at the three of them.

"And your judgment?" Alex asked, seemingly innocent. "Did I pass or fail?"

"Pass," Sarah said, as Chuck nodded in agreement and Casey glowered at him.

"My life-long dream has been fulfilled," Alex said sarcastically.

"How did you learn all that?" Chuck asked amazed. "I mean, you're a teenager, so…"

"Lessons," Alex blandly replied.

"What level are you?" Sarah curiously asked.

"The equivalent of a first grade dan black belt," Alex told them, his voice devoid of any pride or smugness.

"Wow," Chuck said and Sarah nodded. Even Casey looked impressed. Alex nodded at them, took out his phone and sent a text to Tom.

"What's the plan?" he asked.

"For…" Chuck began, confused.

"Tonight's supper," Alex replied. "Are we going home soon or anything? Because I really want to change. My collared shirt is all sweaty. I don't want to scare anyway away because they think I don't wash."

"Oh, yeah," Chuck nodded. "You and Casey are going to change and shower and arrive at Ellie's house around 7:15ish. Sarah and I will already be there. Please try to act like family," Chuck pleaded. "And don't give Ellie or Awesome any reason to think you're a spy!"

Alex looked startled. "They know about you?"

Chucked shuffled awkwardly. "Um…not exactly. See, they know about Casey and Sarah being spies, and they know that I used to be. But they don't know about me know."

"Okay…" Alex looked at him in slight disbelief. "I promise that I'll be a perfectly normal, James Bond-free teenage boy. No spying for me at all tonight, I promise." He gave Chuck a grin, but Chuck didn't entirely trust him.

"And," Chuck said, turning so that he could face both Casey and Alex, "please don't antagonize each other or kill each other over dinner. Or I'll kill both of you!" Casey grunted and Alex rolled his eyes; Chuck didn't make very good threats.

"Time to go home and get ready," Sarah announced. The four agents left Castle and drove home to prepare for Ellie and Awesome's dinner. Chuck was fervently praying that Alex didn't give anything away, the Casey didn't bring more than one gun, and they wouldn't fight with each other.

"If I make it through tonight without getting one gray hair, it'll be a miracle," Chuck muttered under his breath as he got in his car and drove home.

**

* * *

OK, hope you all enjoyed it and I did ok with the fight scenes. **

**Side note: did anyone else realize that the last AR book comes out in less than a month? I'm sooooo sad! :( **

**Anyways, please review! **


	11. Chapter 11

Alex was texting Tom while waiting for Casey to finish getting ready.

SO HOW'S THE MISH GOING? IS THE BIG OAF STILL MAD YOU BEAT HIM?

Alex smiled at Tom's text; only he would use the word oaf in this day and age and still sound completely normal about it.

NOT REALLY, Alex replied, HOW'S GETTING GIRLS GOING?

NOT WELL AT ALL MR. JAMES BOND. APPERANTLY I'M NOT SMOOTH ENOUGH. I NEED YOU AND YOUR AWESOME LYING SKILLS HERE RIGHT NOW.

THAT BAD?

OH SAVE IT BOND!

Alex grinned, both at Tom's failure and the constant references to James Bond. When Alex had gotten back from Africa, Tom had decided that the two of them should watch the James Bond movies. At first Alex had refused, but Tom had been insistent and Alex had been bed-bound by Jack with strict orders to rest and watch some movies. Tom had made the movies so much funnier by telling Bond how Alex could have done it better, and telling Alex that he needed to take tips from Bond in order to get more girls at school to like him. Alex had thrown a pillow at Tom's head when his friend had asked Alex for some soda, stirred, not shaken, in a horrible Bond impersonation. Jack had come in and upon hearing Tom's request, informed him that he got the quote wrong. Tom had then launched into a long explanation about what happened when a soda can gets shaken and then someone opens it—KABLOOM! Jack had shaken her head and rolled her eyes as she left the room laughing.

"You ready to go kid?" Casey asked, standing awkwardly in the door of his bedroom.

"Yeah," Alex replied, doing a sweep of his room before he exited. He sent a final text to Tom, shut his mobile and put it in his pocket.

"Be on your best behavior," Casey warned Alex as the man rang the doorbell.

"Of course I will Uncle John," Alex replied smirking. A beautiful black-haired and pregnant woman answered the door and welcomed the two of them into her home. The man from earlier, Devon, or Captain Awesome as Chuck called him, was right behind her.

"Hey bro," Awesome said, addressing Alex, "how'd it go today?"

"It went well, thanks," Alex replied.

"Lots of fun?"

"Yeah." Alex smiled. He had more fun than Devon would believe.

"Good," Awesome replied, that huge smile still in place on his face.

"Hello," the woman Alex assumed to be Ellie greeted him. "I'm Ellie Woodcomb, Chuck's sister."

"Alex," Alex introduced himself. "Pleased to meet you. And thanks so much for inviting me over for dinner Mrs. Woodcomb."

"Not a problem at Alex," she assured him, "and it's simply Ellie."

"Alright then," Alex replied as she led him and Casey into the living room. Sarah and Chuck were already there. They both waved in greeting. Alex returned the gesture. Alex sat in a chair and listened as the adults talked about normal, everyday boring things. Alex wanted to smile; Jack was never one to make small talk. Alex wanted to sigh. He really missed Jack. And all of this family crap only made him miss her more.

"So Alex," Ellie asked him, turning to face the boy, "where are you from?"

"Washington DC," Alex replied without hesitation. He sensed that Chuck, Casey, and Sarah were paying very close attention in case he slipped up.

"Is it nice there?" Ellie asked, curious. It was another one on those boring questions adults ask kids that Jack hated.

"Yeah," Alex replied, putting enthusiasm into his voice, "I love playing soccer with my friend Tom, or walking around the Capitol with my cousin Jack. She always comes up with the best ideas of things to do."

"Sounds lovely," Ellie said, genuinely.

Alex nodded in agreement and said, "It is."

"Dinner's ready!" Awesome called. Everyone got up and moved from the living room into the dining room. Devon and Casey sat at the heads of the table. Chuck sat beside Devon, with Sarah sitting next to him. Ellie sat on Devon's other side, and Alex sat between Ellie and Casey.

The beginning of the meal was filled with chit-chat about things that Alex, once again, didn't care about, so while his listened and ate his turkey, his eyes wandered around the house. It had a few escape options, all of which he could get to easily. And the knife holder was visible on the counter; Alex could reach those very quickly if he needed to. Hopefully he wouldn't. He wasn't one hundred percent sure why he was analyzing every inch of this house. He had done a check on Ellie and Awesome at Castle and everything was clear. He was brought out of his musings by Awesome's booming voice.

"So Alex," Awesome asked, "what did you do today?"

"Uncle John showed me around the BuyMore a bit," Alex replied. "I'm not sure how long I'm staying, so I wanted to see if I would want to get a summer job working there."

"Will you?" Ellie asked, as Chuck, Casey, and Sarah exchanged nervous glances.

"Nope," Alex told her, "It's way too nerdy for my taste," he said with a grin. "No offense Chuck," he flashed Chuck a cheeky smile. Ellie and Awesome laughed as the three agents smiled as well.

"None taken," Chuck told the boy.

Talk then turned to sports for the men and entertainment for the women as the group finished and moved back into the living room. Alex played his teenage role, acting animated and often interjecting his own views on particular sports.

Later was dessert, which was fantastic. Ellie had made brownies, which were warm and fudgy. Alex loved Jack's cooking, but nothing compared to Ellie's brownies. She then brought out ice-cream to make brownie-ala-mode, and Alex enjoyed every bite. Unfortunately, half-way through dessert, Awesome got an emergency call from the hospital and had to leave. Not wishing to impose on Ellie for too long, Casey and Alex left soon after.

"And thanks so much Mrs. Woodcomb," Alex told Ellie again as he was leaving. He held some leftover turkey and brownies in containers in his hand. "Thanks especially for the brownies, they were amazing!" he smiled at her.

"It's no trouble at all Alex," Ellie said, smiling. "Enjoy them."

"Oh, I will. Goodnight Mrs. Woodcomb."

"Goodnight Alex. Goodnight John."

"Night. And thanks." Casey shut the door behind them and Alex followed the man across the square and back into their house. Alex got ready for bed as the man checked all of his alarm systems. Once he put a t-shirt and shorts, Alex lay in bed and turned on his bedside lamp. He pulled out _A Picture of Dorian Gray_ from his bag. He opened to chapter four and began reading his assigned summer reading book.

Casey stood in the half-opened doorway to the young spy's room, debating whether to knock or not.

"Are you just going to stand there?" Alex suddenly asked, startling Casey, "because it's kind of

creeping me out."

Casey opened the door fully and looked at Alex, who had paused in his reading his book.

"Can I help you?" Alex sighed. Casey looked at the Brit. He was annoyed at how quickly the child had beaten him, but at the same time he was impressed with the boy. He would never tell the kid that, though.

"Just don't touch the windows or doors or anything that would be alarmed," Casey finally said. "The alarm would go off, and I don't really want to get up before I have to." Alex nodded in understanding and went back to his novel. Casey shut the door as he left the room to go to bed as well.

[][][][][][][][][]

Sarah Walker lay in bed awake, listening to Chuck's breathing. She was thinking about Alex Rider. He was no ordinary fifteen year old teenager, although being a spy was the obvious reason for that. His fighting skills were impressive and he was a good lair. But that didn't bother Sarah as much as remembering dinner did. At Ellie's the boy would check for an escape route every so often. His eyes would constantly scan the room; Sarah had seen them land on the knife holder a few times. Although a hardened spy, Sarah felt a twinge of pity for the boy. However, that small amount of pity was overcome by the strong desire and curiosity to find out why Alex Rider acted the way he did. It was just to unnatural for a child. And pondering the strange British boy, Sarah fell asleep.

* * *

**Sorry for the wait, hope you enjoyed the chapter. **

**As always, please review! :) Thanks! **


	12. Chapter 12

Alex woke up the next morning feeling strangely refreshed. He walked out into the living room and decided to eat some breakfast. Opening the refrigerator he found some eggs. Searching through the cabinets, Alex got all the materials he needed to make scrambled eggs. Making enough for two people, Alex was setting the table when Casey walked in, fully clothed in his BuyMore uniform.

He grunted. "You cook?"

"Yeah," Alex replied shrugging, "my uncle and Jack liked to make meals that didn't take too much time, so I know quite a few quick recipes. I hope you like eggs."

"Thanks kid," Casey told him, helping himself to the eggs Alex put on the table. Alex sat down opposite Casey and the two of them began to eat in silence.

"Today you will learn about Volkoff and our mission," Casey announced, breaking the silence. "Tonight you and I will go to the restaurant. It's a small, slightly out-of-the-way place; a family owned café. After we obtain information about when and where the drop point is, your part of this mission is over. We will then have you on the next available plan back to London. Any questions?"

"No," Alex replied. Inside, he rejoiced. Hopefully by tomorrow he would be back in London with Tom, trying to chat up girls, going to the movies, and doing other normal teenage things. He had to fight to keep the enormous grin from spreading across his face.

"Go get dressed," Casey ordered, "we'll be heading over to the BuyMore very soon. Wear what you are wearing to the café."

"Alright," Alex said. He took his plate and washed it in the sink, then placed it in the dish rack before going to his room to change. He threw on a collared shirts and khaki shorts. He'd be heading home soon enough.

[][][][][][][][]

"Read this," Casey commanded, handing Alex a file. "It's about Volkoff and what he does. He won't be at the café tonight, but I feel it's important for you to know what you're dealing with."

"Thanks," Alex said as Casey went back upstairs; a few minutes later Sarah came down to "supervise" him.

"Feel free to ask me any question," Sarah told him as she sat on the computer and did her CIA stuff. Alex mumbled a response and began reading about Alexei Volkoff.

_Alexei Volkoff_

_Head of Volkoff Industries, an international arms-dealing company. Its base is in Moscow, Russia. _

_Speaks Russia, German, and English_

_He was indicted in New York for his involvement in arms trafficking. _

_He is wanted for Conspiracy to kill United States nationals, to murder, to destroy buildings and property of__the United States, and to destroy the national defense utilities of the United States._

"So clearly this guy is an issue," Alex commented as he finished reading. Sarah nodded from her place on the computer. "What exactly do you think he's up to?"

"He has been selling an abnormal amount of weapons lately; we fear he's arming people here in the United States and they will attack people of power, possibly even the president," Sarah explained.

"But isn't your president pretty well protected?" Alex asked.

"You can never have too much protection," Sarah stated. A beep emitted from her cell phone. Alex froze—was it Shulsky?

"Chuck," Alex heard Sarah say. He breathed a sigh of relief. As Sarah talked Alex took out his iPod and put in his headphones. He went to an app and click number 3. The app allowed him to listen to the bugs he had placed in the BuyMore earlier this morning.

Bug #3 was some lady talking on the phone, trying to figure out which Xbox game her kid would like. Bug #1 was Jeff and Lester singing; Alex quickly changed it. Bug#4 was Big Mike yelling at another employee. Bug #2 was Morgan trying to make a sale. Bug #5 was Chuck talking to Sarah. Nothing important. The bugs placed around the BuyMore were very small magnets and were well hidden. Alex really needed to thanks Smithers.

[][][][][][][][]

"Alright kid," Casey said has he came down the steps, "listen to me and listen to me good. In fifteen minutes you and I will head over to the café. Once there, you and I will get a table near the two men meeting. I will be wired and everything we say will be sent here to Castle, where Chuck and Sarah will be. They'll be watching surveillance on the café. You and I will speak as if we are father and son. Bring up school or something; whatever it is normal teenagers talk to their parents about."

"Like I would know anything about that," Alex muttered under his breath. Casey didn't hear him.

"I'll be right back," Casey said as he went to change out of his BuyMore uniform. Alex nodded. He had his iPod and rope-bracelet; he was ready to go. Casey came out a few minutes later dressed in a black polo and jeans. Sarah and Chuck were coming down the stairs.

"Are you ready to go Alex?" Chuck asked, sitting down at the computer. Sarah sat next to him and pulled up the video feed for the café's security cameras.

"Yeah, I'm good to go," Alex replied, as he watched Casey arm himself with a gun.

"You're only taking one gun?" Chuck asked, surprised.

"Beckman said to keep a low profile," Sarah explained as Casey growled, "and it isn't that easy to hide multiple guns dressed in simply a shirt and jeans. You wired?" she asked Casey. The man nodded in affirmation.

"Let's move out," Casey announced.

[][][][][][]

The drive to the café had been in silence. Alex had asked how Casey could be sure the meeting about the weapons would be held here at this exact time and Casey had peevishly told him that it was classified knowledge.

The café was called Apate's*. Alex dutifully followed Casey out of the car and the two of them got a booth near the kitchen.

"Thanks again for this Dad," Alex commented, rifling through the menu.

"It's no problem, glad you're enjoying it," Casey awkwardly replied. Alex mentally groaned. Casey was uncomfortable around him; this would take a lot of acting to pull off convincingly.

"That's our man," Casey said. "He's called Rex. Dangerous guy. Don't arouse any suspicion."

"I won't Dad. I promise that I'll ace the math test," Alex replied. Casey looked confused for a moment, then understood what Alex was doing.

Casey suddenly swore. Alex turned to see why Casey was so riled. An Italian man had come in and was heading over to Rex's table.

"Sarah," Alex heard Casey whisper into his watch, probably so she and Chuck could know it was addressed to them. "Tony Ricci has just entered the building. We need to abandon Plan A. We need to stop the transaction if possible."

"What? Why?" Alex hissed, confused. He snuck a glance over at Tony. Alex noticed how Tony's eyes shifted, checking over his surroundings. He sat down across from Rex. The exchanged a few words while Casey listened and spoke to Sarah in a hushed voice.

Tony got up after a few minutes and followed the signs to the bathroom. Casey's eyes followed him suspiciously.

"I'll follow him," Casey said, "We cannot allow the money, plans, or weapons locations to fall into his hands." Alex thought that what Casey said sounded like a line from a movie script or something, but decided to keep his mouth shut and let it go.

"Yeah, ok," Alex mumbled, feeling a sudden uneasy feeling. "I'll watch the one at the table."

"Don't do anything foolish kid," Casey warned. Alex gave him a wry smile and Casey cautiously walked to the bathroom. Alex watched him until he was out of his sight. Then he sighed and rolled his eyes. Why did things always get over-complicated when he was around?

Alex heard a rustling of the leaves of the potted plant behind him. He whipped his head around and stared into the leaves.

"Don't move or make a sound," a voice whispered in his ear.

Alex swore. The rustling of the leaves had been a distraction. And he had fallen for it. He felt the cold barrel of a gun press into his side. Gulping, he nodded. The man sat down next to him.

"My name is Rex," the man hissed, "and if you do one thing wrong you will get a bullet lodged painfully into your side. Understood?" Alex nodded again. "Good. Now stay seated and don't make a sound as all these people leave. We need you to…ah…convince your friend about something."

The rustle of the leaves alerted Alex that the man behind the plants had left his position. He walked unnoticed into the kitchen and exited the doors barely a minute later.

"I am so sorry, but we have had a family crisis," the man announced and his voice quieted the crowd. "We would very much appreciate if you could all leave as we close down the café. All your meals will be free of charge, and we apologize for the inconvenience that we have caused. We also hope that this doesn't ruin your opinion of us and you will visit us again. Thank you." The man quickly assisted the costumers in leaving, acknowledging their condolences. No one leaving noticed Alex or Rex, as they were in an obscure and slightly hidden booth. Once everyone had left he pulled down all of the shades and locked the doors. He took out his cell phone and spoke a few words into it before coming over to Alex.

"Hey kid," he said, leaning confidently on the table, "my name's Justin. Just give me a minute and I'll get your friend. Then my friend will come and we'll all have a little talk. OK?" Alex grimaced; why was this guy talking to him like he was seven years old?

Justin left in the direction of the bathroom, stopping to pull out a cord of rope from behind one of the potted plants. Alex prayed fervently that Casey got away, but his hopes were dashed as the man was led from the bathroom with his hands bound and the two men on either side of him. A trickle of blood ran down his face, but he had on his signature scowl. He was shoved unceremoniously into a chair. Tony drew out his gun and kept it pointed at Casey.

"John Casey, NSA," Justin said, walking over to him, "I haven't heard much about you, but my friend has. He was most curious how you managed to live in a wall for two weeks while attempting to assassinate the leader of Costa Grava. You are apparently quite an interesting person. I'm sure that he would be most interested to meet you."

The kitchen doors opened and a man walked out. Alex ducked his head after a quick glance at the man's face.

"Hello John Casey. How wonderful that the United States feels that we've become a problem," the man said, grinning wickedly. His eyes found Alex. Alex kept his head down, feeling the man's eyes gazing at him.

"And who's this?" the man casually commented. "Who are you?" he asked. Alex didn't move a muscle. "Boy!" he shouted, annoyed. "I asked you a question." Alex steeled his nerves and looked up; the man's eyes widened in surprise.

"Hello Walker," Alex said.

* * *

***Apate was the Greek goddess of lies and deceit- thought it was a very spyish café name, don't you? :) **

** Hope everyone enjoyed. **

**If you guys want, please check out Bryce vs. the Party, a Chuck/AR crossover oneshot I did. It's not related to this at all, so bear that in mind. :)**

**Thanks and please review! :) **


	13. Chapter 13

_"And who's this?" the man casually commented. "Who are you?" he asked. Alex didn't move a muscle. "Boy!" he shouted, annoyed. "I asked you a question." Alex steeled his nerves and looked up; the man's eyes widened in surprise._

_"Hello Walker," Alex said._

Walker's eyes narrowed in anger; his face became a deep red as he stormed over to where Alex was. He reached over, grabbed the boy by the collar of his shirt and yanked the child violently up.

"You…you…"Walker was unable to speak. In a fit of anger he viciously backhanded Alex across the face. Taken aback and caught off guard, Alex stumbled backward and fell, clutching the side of his face. Casey went to leap up from his chair, but Tony motioned with his gun and Casey reluctantly sat down, anger evident on his face.

"Nice to see you too Walker," Alex replied, his face still smarting. "Miss me?" Walker, fuming, yanked Alex up from by the collar.

"You little brat!" he hissed, nearly spitting in Alex's face. "After you left and we found out what you did to Mrs. Rothman and Nile, I wanted to go after you and kill you myself. I was thinking slow and painful torture. It was going to be something physiological, or I was going to cut you until you bled out. And I would make sure that it was extremely long and excruciating." As he spoke, he was violently shaking Alex. The intense clutch that Walker had on Alex's shirt was giving Alex slight difficulty breathing.

The men working for Walker were slightly confused at Walker's vicious rage at Alex. Casey was confused, but the dominant emotion that he was feeling at the moment was anger.

"Why are you threatening him?" Casey demanded to know. "What reason could you possibly have for wanting to kill the kid?"

Walker gave an evil smile and let go of Alex's collar. The boy dropped to the floor, catching his breath.

"You don't know?" Walker grinned maliciously and asked mockingly. "Alex didn't tell you that we were classmates?"

"Unless you're really as stupid as you look, I don't believe you," Casey retorted.

"The two of us didn't exactly go to what you would call a "normal" school," Walker explained with a evil smirk. "Mr. Casey," Walker began, "do you know who I work for?"

"The strange little voices in your head," Alex muttered and received a kick for his comment.

"Alexei Volkoff," Casey replied.

"Wrong!" Walker practically sang. "I work for SCORPIA. I'm assuming you've heard of us?"

"I have, but not any recent activity," Casey told the man shortly. Alex snorted. "But I still don't understand what this has to do with Alex."

"You truly don't know? Not one single clue? Aren't government agents supposed to be smart?" Walker mockingly asked. "My, my, Alex; don't you trust anybody?"

"Not after what happened with Rothman," Alex shot back darkly.

"Well then," Walker said as he raised his eyebrows, "I'll explain to Casey here about our school days together. Do you have a problem with that?"

"Well, yeah," Alex sarcastically told him, but Walker ignored him.

"As I'm sure you know, this boy is Alex Rider," Walker began; Alex glared hatefully at the man. "I'm sure that you are aware that he's one of MI6's most valuable assets. But not many people know that this innocent looking child of fifteen trained with SCORPIA for two weeks."

"Impossible," Casey scoffed.

"Not so," Walker countered, "and he showed a lot of promise. However, no matter how good he is, I'm afraid SCORPIA could never take him back. He caused the death of two of our board members and many of our operatives. He destroyed Operation Invisible Sword and Project Blue Boy," Walker's voice was rising as he spoke, indicating his anger. "When the news of the death of Julia Rothman and Nile reached our ears, we wanted to bring you back to school and kill you. But of course MI6 want protecting you. Especially after Davis sent you that little gift."

"Just for the record," Alex said, "if you wanted to thank me, chocolate is great. Since you've now totally mocked my life and I've listened to your little temper tantrum, do you think you could let me go now? I had plans to go to the ocean today and get a tan. I heard that girls love tan guys."

Walker punched Alex in the stomach. "I am not amused Alex," he snarled. Alex doubled over and as Walker leaned over to punch him again, Alex straightened up and punched Walker in the face. As Walker staggered backward, Alex delivered a kick and caused the man to crumple.

Justin and Rex abandoned their position by Casey in order to try to subdue Alex. Alex kicked Justin so that bashed his head on ceramic tiling covering the wall. Rex threw a punch that caught Alex off guard, but he grabbed a plate from a nearby table and smashed it over the man's head. Alex followed it up with a kick and a punch to the gut. A metal vase to the side of the head sent Rex down. Justin came towards Alex, but Alex deliver a judo chop that sent the man into unconsciousness.

While Alex was fighting, Casey took advantage of Tony's distraction and tackled the man to the ground. Alex was going over to Casey when a hand grabbed his ankle and pulled him to the ground. With his hands still bound, Casey managed to wrestle the gun out of Tony's hands and use the butt of the gun to knock him out. With a smack, Alex hit the floor; he rolled over and was met with Walker standing over him, holding a gun pointed at his heart. Alex instinctively froze.

"What's wrong Alex?" Walker mocked. "One little gunshot wound and you're paranoid about every single gun you come across? That's not good in your profession of work."

Casey had also frozen when he saw the gun pointed at Alex; there was no doubt in his mind that Walker would use it. Now, looking at the hatred and slight fear of Alex's face to the immense hatred and cruelty on Walker's face, Casey spoke. "You had him shot?" he asked, horrified.

"Assassinated actually," Walker casually replied. "It's a miracle that he lived actually. How much did the bullet miss by?" he directed the question to Alex. "Do tell me; I'm curious."

"Two centimeters," Alex retorted, "you're sniper didn't do a very good job; his aim was a little off."

Cocking the gun, his face in rage, Walker pressed the gun into Alex's chest. "Would you like to test my aim?" Walker threatened. Casey saw Alex go rigid as the gun made contact with his body. In the moment where all of Walker's attention was focused on Alex, Casey acted. He tackled Walker to the ground, and the gun flew out of Walker's hand. Alex followed it up with a kick to the head and a heel to the man's face.

Alex, breathing heavy, looked at Casey and noticed that he was still in his bonds. "Wait here," he said, and he went and got a large and sharp knife. "Don't move," Alex cautioned as he cut the ropes off Casey's hand. Once Casey was free, the man grabbed Alex by the arm.

"We need to get out of here now," Casey said, pulling the boy with him as he moved towards the door.

* * *

**Hope everyone enjoyed it! Reviews make me especially happy! lol :) **


	14. Chapter 14

"Move it kid," Casey growled, "the exit's this way." Alex said nothing but followed Casey through the employee entrance to the café. Casey had drawn his gun and had it held in front of him as he ushered Alex out. As the moved toward the car, Casey whispered angrily.

"We need to meet Chuck and Sarah back at the BuyMore," Casey told Alex, "We need to figure out why all of this went so wrong. No one was supposed to know; you were never supposed to get involved. We'll review the tapes and audio in order to gain more information about them and—"

"The tapes and audio?" Alex questioned.

"When we told you we were keeping an eye on things, we meant it literally. We had a camera recording everything and transmitters that enabled Chuck and Sarah to hear everything back at Castle.

"Everything?"

"Everything that I heard," Casey affirmed.

Alex nodded as Casey hustled him into the car. The two of them drove in silence. Alex looked over at Casey, whose eyes were glaring at the road in front of him. His scowl seemed even deeper and he looked downright murderous. The silence lasted for about five minutes; until Casey swore and drove into a crowded BJ's parking lot. He took out his cell phone and after the person on the other end picked up, Casey spoke.

"Sarah, it's Casey," he said, "There's a ton of traffic. Alex and I will be there as soon as possible. We're both fine, don't worry. Yeah. Send some people to pick up the men we left behind. Be there when we can. Okay. Alright Sarah. Bye." Casey hung up the phone and Alex's previous confusion turned into shock and fear.

"What are you doing? Why are you lying to them? Do you work for SCORPIA?" As the questions tumbled out of Alex's mouth, he made to open the door and exit the car. A click and a failed attempt to get the door open confirmed that Alex was locked in the car with Casey.

"Alex," when Casey spoke, it was uncharacteristically gentle. Alex was too nervous to actually register that Casey had addressed him by his name for the first time. "I am not part of SCORPIA, as for what I'm doing, I'm talking to you. I thought that you might not want to have to explain everything in front of Sarah and Chuck. There are no bugs or transmitters in this car, nor do I have any on me. Anything you say in this car will not be heard by anyone else"

Alex crossed his arms in a position that normal teenagers usually did, but on the child he looked extremely intimidating.

"Speak and explain now kid," Casey ordered, once again in a rough voice. Alex looked at the man and shook his head.

"Alex," the pleading tone of Casey's voice and the use of his first name showed Alex how desperate Casey was to understand what had happened. Alex took a deep breath and sighed.

"Just let me explain it, OK? Maybe after I'm done you can ask questions. Just a fair warning, you'll have to sign the Official Secrets Acts and all that stuff. And don't interrupt. Once I begin, I'm not stopping. Got it?" Alex said. Casey nodded in understanding and motioned for Alex to begin.

"I'm not going to start at the real beginning of all of this, that would take too long. Maybe later; I'll see. And even I'm not sure how it all truly began. Anyway, the beginning of my dealings with SCORPIA, the real one, started on Air Force One. One of the best assassins in the world refused orders to kill me the price for his refusal was his life. As he was dying, he told me to find SCORPIA and I would find my destiny. I know it sounds stupid, but this guy had refused to kill me about three times already, so I got the feeling he was telling the truth. And he mentioned knowing my dad, so I decided that I was going to find them. I had no idea what SCORPIA really was, but I was a determined, stupid teenager. I went because MI6 was a bunch of lying bastards, so I headed to Venice. Snuck into a party as Julia Rothman's house, was almost attacked by a tiger, was knocked out, and was then left to drown. I escaped and went to Naples, because I overheard Rothman telling someone about one of the centers there. Couldn't get in the normal way, so I BASE-jumped in. Watched someone die, met Nile, the guy who left me to drown, who apologized and said that Rothman didn't want me dead. Took me to her, she offered me information about my dad if I went to Malagosto. That was pretty much the only reason that I had agreed to find SCORPIA at all, so I agreed. Was taken to Malagosto, their training center. Was taught to shoot and kill. I was good at shooting the bull's-eye targets, but I couldn't really do well when I was aiming at people targets. Rothman thought all I needed was the right target, so she sent me to kill Mrs. Jones. She's MI6's second in command. Due to a…video clip and…personal things…I agreed. But I couldn't kill her and was apprehended by MI6. Went to a meeting on 10 Downing St and figured out how SCORPIA was going to kill millions of British school children. Went back to SCORPIA undercover, blew that cover, flew up in a hot air balloon and stopped their plan. Killed Nile—it was an accident; I don't like killing people. He fell off the hot air balloon and it probably didn't help that he was afraid of heights. The baskets came off the bottom of the balloon and one of the heavy metal things came out of the sky and killed Mrs. Rothman. I didn't know that until later, though. I hung under the balloon until it landed and then went home. Mrs. Jones and Blunt contacted me, I explained everything that had happened and they told me what actually happened to my dad. As I was leaving the undercover office, which, shockingly, isn't that undercover, I was shot as I stepped off of the curb. That small action saved my life because it caused the bullet to miss my heart by 2cm. I was rushed to St. Dominic's and recovered, obviously. Walker was one of the eight other students at Malagosto. SCORPIA doesn't like betrayal, so clearly, they weren't all that thrilled and extremely pissed at me. But since MI6 was negotiating for my safety, they couldn't touch me anymore. Around this time the whole Ark Angel thing began to happen, and after that I gave SCORPIA more problems with Major Yu. But that's another really long story that I'm not getting into right now."

Alex's long-winded explanation was met with grave silence from Casey. Alex squirmed uncomfortably under Casey's gazed.

"We've wasted enough time," Alex mumbled, refusing to look Casey in the eye and instead staring out the window, "we should head back to Castle now."

Casey said nothing as the two of them drove back to headquarters in silence. Glancing over at the teen, he noticed the large, ugly bruise forming on the boy's face. Strangely enough, looking at the kid and hearing a small part of his story, Casey actually felt sorry and slightly protective of the child. After all, this kid, who had been living with him for a few days, had risked his life to save the world. And he was only fifteen! Casey would never come right out and say it, but the British kid was beginning to grow on him; he actually _liked_ the kid. He watched the road in front of him as the boy remained quiet.

**Sorry for the wait! Hope you enjoyed!**

**Getting the final AR book now. Excitement! :) **

**Please review!**


	15. Chapter 15

Alex was quite surprised that he had told Casey about his run-in with SCORPIA. It was something that he had never told anybody; he liked to keep his secrets. And now he had violated the Official Secrets Act. Sure, he had told Tom, but that was different. Casey was a government official; there was no telling what he would do. And if the awkward silence in the car wasn't enough, Alex could feel Casey shooting "covert" glances at him.

"Please stop doing that," Alex finally grumbled after the tenth time or so that Casey checked on him, "it's really annoying."

Casey at least looked somewhat sheepish for being caught. Well, as sheepish as John Casey could look.

"When we get to Castle," Casey began, "Chuck and Sarah, Chuck especially, will be curious about what they heard, so—"

"No," Alex cut him off. "I don't want to talk about it again. I don't want them to know. I don't want you to tell them."

"They're my team," Casey told him, "I can't keep secrets from them. This team is built on trust, and I won't lie to them."

"Oh, because you've never lied before," Alex sarcastically said.

"Look, I care about them, so I can't just lie to their faces and keep the truth from them," Casey replied.

"Well you cared for Kathleen and you told her the biggest lie of all!" Alex shot back. Casey looked shocked and horrified, and Alex immediately felt bad for bring Casey's wife up. But not sorry enough to apologize just yet.

He slumped down in his seat, thinking that the rest of the ride would be spent in silence. He was quite surprise when Casey spoke.

"Look ki—Alex, "Casey corrected himself, "I didn't directly lie to Kathleen, but it was a lie anyway. What happened was that I was offered a chance to greater serve my country, so I took it. When I joined the Black Ops I was already overseas, so it was easy for her to believe that I had died. And it's true; at the end of my phone call to Kathleen, Alex Coburn died serving his country and John Casey was born. Kathleen was told that Alex Coburn died in the line of duty. I do sometimes regret my decision; I only just found out a few months ago that I had a daughter. I wished that I had known and been a part of her life. But even if I do wish that the lie had never been told, it is too late to do anything about it. Alex Coburn's been dead for far too long to ever come back."

"You didn't need to explain yourself to me," Alex grumbled, "it was your choice. I just don't want to be lectured about secret-keeping when you are Sarah are probably the worst offenders of that. Hell! Probably all spies except the really bloody awful ones and Chuck keep secrets. Actually, now that I think about it, the entire government keeps secrets as well. Point is, I don't want you to act all condemning. That only makes you a hypocrite."

"But—" Casey began.

"Hypocrite," Alex hissed as he turned to ignore Casey. "You have your secrets, I have mine. I want to keep it that way."

"But we can help you," Casey quickly said.

Alex gave a slightly derisive laugh, "Yeah, right."

"Yes we can," Casey told him, "you're only a teenager, I'm sure something can be worked out."

Again Alex laughed, but sobered up quickly, "I'm in too deep."

"How deep?"

"SCORPIA deep, obviously," Alex told him with a wave of his hand. "I mean, they suck as an organization, but they still command a certain amount of respect and fear. Can I get in any deeper?"

Casey took a moment to think of any other criminal organizations.

"That was a rhetorical question," Alex told him, rolling his eyes. "Besides, you're missing my point again. The point is that I'm in really deep, and right now, I don't think many things will be able to help me. So it doesn't matter."

"But why did you choose this if you don't like it?" Casey asked.

"I didn't," was all Alex said before turning to face the window and seeing the BuyMore in sight.

Casey pulled into a parking spot and Alex practically tore out of the car.

"Alex," Casey called, and Alex unwillingly came to a halt. "We'll head in together, and perhaps I'll dissuade Sarah and Chuck from asking you questions right now. But you will need to explain a bit to them later. OK?" he asked gruffly.

"Alright," Alex sighed and agreed. He began to walk away, but paused and turned around to face Casey. "And Casey? Thanks." Casey gave the boy a nod as he followed him into the BuyMore.

[][][][][][][][]

_"And who's this?"_ a man casually commented; Chuck and Sarah exchanged confused looks. They were already worried about what was going on at the café, and Chuck was nervous for Alex's safety.

"Who is he talking about?" Chuck asked his fiancé.

"It could be…Alex, could it?" Sarah finally got out.

_"Who are you? Boy!" _ the man repeated and Chuck was suddenly fearful for the child_. "I asked you a question."_ He continued and Chuck looked over at Sarah, who was clutching the back of a chair.

_"Hello Walker," _Alex's voice came through the speaker. Chuck's face shot over to Sarah, who was staring at the communicator in confusion and apprehension.

"_You…you…" _the man stuttered and suddenly there was a smack and a large thud coming from the transmitter.

"Was that thud Alex?" Chuck asked, horrified. "Sarah, we gotta do something!"

"We can't Chuck," Sarha sadly said, "not yet."

"_Nice to see you too Walker. Miss me?" _Alex's voice, full of sarcasm came from the device.

"He knows him?" Chuck asked in disbelief, "How?"

"I don't know Chuck," Sarah replied, "I don't know."

"_You little brat" _Walker's angry voice filled Castle_ "After you left and we found out what you did to Mrs. Rothman and Nile, I wanted to go after you and kill you myself. I was thinking slow and painful torture. It was going to be something physiological, or I was going to cut you until you bled out. And I would make sure that it was extremely long and excruciating."_

"That…that…how could he…Sarah!" Chuck was clearly distressed; he couldn't even form a complete sentence to express his outrage.

"How could he know someone that is this crazy and dangerous?" Sarah inquired.

"_Why are you threatening him?" _Now Casey's voice came through._ "What reason could you possibly have for wanting to kill the kid?"_

"You better protect that kid Casey," Chuck muttered under his breath. Another thud sounded from the transmitter and Chuck winced, not knowing who it was.

"_You don't know?" _Walker's mocking voice made Chuck clench his fists in anger,_"Alex didn't tell you that we were classmates?"_

"What?" Chuck and Sarah asked at the same time.

"_Unless you're really as stupid as you look, I don't believe you," _Casey responded, echoing Sarah and Chuck's silent thoughts_._

"_The two of us didn't exactly go to what you would call a "normal" school," _again, Walker's coy voice sounded. "_Mr. Casey do you know who I work for?"_

"Volkoff," Chuck and Sarah simultaneously said.

"_The strange little voices in your head,"_ Alex's voice was barely heard, but Sarah and Chuck each had a slight smile on their face at that sound of his voice; at least he was alright. The smile vanished when a muffled sound of a kick came through.

"Alex," Chuck barely heard Sarah whisper.

"_Alexei Volkoff," _Casey voiced the agents' opinion.

"_Wrong!" _Walker's singsong voice was heard. _"I work for SCORPIA. I'm assuming you've heard of us?"_

"Actually, no I haven't," Chuck snarkly told the device.

"Chuck," Sarah was staring at the transmitter in disbelief, "this is really bad. SCORPIA is probably the worst terrorist group in the world. How the hell could Alex be involved with them?"

"_I have, but not any recent activity," _Casey replied, which was followed by a snort that Sarah assumed was Alex's, and she smiled.

"They had two failed operation recently," Sarah told Chuck, "and have been laying low for a while.

"_But I still don't understand what this has to do with Alex,"_ Casey's voice continued.

"_You truly don't know? Not one single clue? Aren't government agents supposed to be smart?" _Walker mockingly asked._ "My, my, Alex; don't you trust anybody?"_

"Going to go with a no on that one," Chuck commented.

"_Not after what happened with Rothman," _Alex's angered voice filled the room.

"_Well then I'll explain to Casey here about our school days together. Do you have a problem with that?"_ Walker asked. Sarah and Chuck exchanged a look that was both nervous and excited.

"_Well, yeah," _Alex's sarcasm was evident.

"_As I'm sure you know, this boy is Alex Rider," _Walker began,_"I'm sure that you are aware that he's one of MI6's most valuable assets. But not many people know that this innocent looking child of fifteen trained with SCORPIA for two weeks."_

"WHAT?"

Chuck shot Sarah a look of terror and confusion that Sarah had no answer to; she only had one question—who was Alex Rider?

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**Sorry for the long wait. So Scorpia Rising was amazing; finished it the day I got it. No I don't have problems! :)**

**Hope you liked the chapter. **

**Please review! :) **


	16. Chapter 16

"That's…that's…." Chuck began.

"_Impossible,"_ Casey voice filtered through and voiced what Chuck was thinking.

"_Not so," _Walker's smug voice spoke,_ "and he showed a lot of promise. However, no matter how good he is, I'm afraid SCORPIA could never take him back. He caused the death of two of our board members and many of our operatives. He destroyed Operation Invisible Sword and Project Blue Boy. When the news of the death of Julia Rothman and Nile reached our ears, we wanted to bring you back to school and kill you. But of course MI6 want protecting you. Especially after Davis sent you that little gift."_

"Sarah, I'm so confused."

"So am I Chuck, so am I.

"_Just for the record," _Alex's taunting voice said,_ "if you wanted to thank me, chocolate is great. Since you've now totally mocked my life and I've listened to your little temper tantrum, do you think you could let me go now? I had plans to go to the ocean today and get a tan. I heard that girls love tan guys." _

"He's actually egging him on," Sarah said in disbelief.

"Why is he doing that? He'll get himself killed," Chuck panicked.

"Chuck, Chuck, calm down," Sarah told him, barely containing her concern for the child.

A grunt came through the transmitter and Chuck looked fearfully at Sarah, "What was that?"

"I'm not sure Chuck," Sarah responded as Walker's cruel voice said _"I am not amused Alex."_

Sounds of muffled fighting were transmitted over the device and Chuck started pacing, "Sarah, Sarah, what's going on? Why isn't Casey doing something? We can't let this madman kill Alex!"

"Chuck," Sarah firmly commanded, "panicking now won't help him. We need to trust Casey. And…Alex is supposed to be one of the best."

"He's also only a teenager!" Chuck shot back. "You didn't want me to be a spy, I don't want Ellie knowing because it's dangerous! And he's a kid!"

A smashing sound was emitted Chuck and Sarah's heads whipped around and there was a groan and the sound of metal hitting bone and a loud thunk and the sound of a body hitting the floor.

"_What's wrong Alex?" _Walker's mocking voice filled the room, anger evident in it_. "One little gunshot wound and you're paranoid about every single gun you come across? That's not good in your profession of work." _

"He was shot!" Chuck exclaimed, "like shot with a gun shot? Sarah, Sarah, we have to do something!"

"Quiet Chuck," Sarah ordered, "we need to hear what's going on."

"We need to hear a kid die?" Chuck asked in anguish.

"He won't die," Sarah swore, her hands clutching the chair.

"_You had him shot?"_ Casey's outraged voice broke through.

"_Assassinated actually,"_ Walker's cool voice made Chuck want to strangle him, but at the moment he could do nothing but stare in fear at the transmitter. "_It's a miracle that he lived actually. How much did the bullet miss by? Do tell me; I'm curious."_

"Assassinated…" Sarah breathed, "there was an assassination attempt on his life! I don't believe this!"

"Oh my god. Holy sh—" Chuck began to exclaim, but stopped when her heard Alex's snarky voice.

"_Two centimeters, you're sniper didn't do a very good job; his aim was a little off_."

"Two—" Chuck began again, but Walker's outraged voice cut him off.

"_Would you like to test my aim?"_

"Oh Alex…"Sarah let out a sigh and grabbed Chuck's hand and squeezed it. There was a sound of a body hitting the floor, and Sarah turned her head into Chuck's shoulder while a tear began to trail down Chuck's face. A metal thud also sounded and muffled sounds of fighting came through along with heavy breathing.

"He's gone…"Sarah whispered in disbelief. "I can't believe he's dead."

"Wait here," a hallow voice said and Chuck nearly jumped in surprise.

"It's Alex!" Chuck's voice cracked; he couldn't believe it. "Is he talking to Casey?"

"God I hope so," Sarah softly said.

"Don't move," Alex's voice was cautionary rather than full of malice, indicating that he was indeed talking to Casey and not Walker.

"_We need to get out of here now,"_ Casey's gruff voice was transmitted, and both Chuck and Sarah sighed in relief that both of their agents were alright.

"_Move it kid, the exit's this way." _

"So at least they can both walk," Sarah muttered as the transmission went silent. "And they should be here soon Chuck; maybe we should get medical supplies ready. We don't know what kind of shape they're in."

"Good idea," Chuck replied, lost in worry over Casey and Alex. Unknown to him, Sarah was also lost in thought over the British spy.

After a few minutes of silence in Castle, both Chuck and Sarah jumped when Sarah's cell phone rang. As fast as lightening, she picked and up and breathed in relief when she saw that it was Casey.

She spoke to him for roughly a minute, and turned to Chuck. "Alex and Casey have hit some traffic," she told him, "but they should be here soon."

"Good," Chuck breathed in relief, as he left the room in order to get more materials.

"And after he's better," Sarah said aloud to herself, "I want some answers."

[][][][][][][][][][][]

Volkoff slammed his fist down in anger. "Dammit," he swore, and the man in the room flinched.

"Tell me Fields," Volkoff began, "did you not say that the Intersect would be the one to show up? And I would see a demonstration of his skills? Instead an old Black Ops agent and a child show up in place of the Intersect and his partner."

"Sir, I—" Fields began, but Volkoff cut him off with a smile on his face.

"Your mistake is forgiven for now," Volkoff told him, grinning happily, "Because you have shown me something much more…profitable." He re-wound the security tape and watched the boy fight the SCORPIA operative. "Who is the child? Walker seemed to recognize him."

"I am not sure at the moment sir, but I can find out," Fields quickly told the man.

"Excellent," Volkoff smiled, "I want to talk to Walker and find out how he knows this remarkable child. Could you imagine if we got both? That would be…absolutely spiffing!"

"Sir? We have a name," someone announced.

"Marvelous!" Volkoff exclaimed, "What is it?"

"Alex Rider," the man replied.

"Alex Rider," Volkoff repeated slowly, as if tasting the name on his lips. "Well, Alex Rider," he said with the face of an excited child, "I'll be meeting you very soon."

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**So, hope everybody enjoyed that, sorry for the delay.**

**The character of Fields was created by aruns, so credit and props to her :) **

**Let me know what you think and please review! :) **


	17. Chapter 17

**So extremely sorry for the long wait; FanFiction has been giving me issues like you wouldn't believe. Hope you enjoy the chapter.**

* * *

As Alex walked down the steps with trepidation, he took deep breaths to calm himself. Casey noticed that the boy was nervous, and began to reach out a hand to comfort Alex; however, he stopped himself and simply followed the child down to Castle.

As Casey expected, Chuck and Sarah were waiting anxiously for them. Casey saw Alex tense, but before he could say anything, the boy was gripped into a hug by Chuck.

"Ohmygodohmygodohmygod," Chuck rapidly repeated, "thank god you're ok."

"You had us worried," Sarah came over to the British spy, and only Casey could tell how relieved she actually was; she never showed this much interest in a person, besides Chuck, of course. "What happened?"

"Nothing," Alex mumbled, squirming out of Chuck's hug and flitting over to the other side of the room, keeping his head low so that neither Chuck nor Sarah would see the bruise forming on his face just yet.

"Rider," Sarah said sternly, "we need to understand what happened; you had the two of us worried to death here!"

"We thought you died!" Chuck shouted, but Alex seemed unfocused and unfazed.

"You wouldn't be the first," he muttered, unaware that all three Americans heard his comment. Sarah went to ask him what he meant by that, but Casey, sensing what she was about to do, cut her off.

"Alex," he said in a voice that Chuck almost considered gentle, "you got to give a little explanation."

Alex looked directly into Casey's eyes, and Sarah was surprised to see something akin to trust in them. The boy gave Casey a barely perceptible nod and faced Chuck and Sarah. "I was undercover at one point and met Walker. He obviously doesn't like me because of it and tried to kill me. Clearly, he failed as I'm standing in front of you. Any questions?"

"Hundreds," Chuck replied immediately. "What's Scorpia? Why were you undercover there? What did you do? How did those people die? Did you really kill them? How many people have you killed? Why is Walker here? How come—"

"Shut it Bartowski," Casey ordered, and Chuck became silent as Sarah gave Casey a disbelieving glance. Casey missed it however, as he was focused on Alex.

Alex avoided eye contact with both Sarah and Chuck and didn't answer any of the questions that Chuck had thrown at him.

"I have one question," Sarah spoke up, ignoring the tension in the room, "why were you shot?"

"Because I stopped their operation," Alex tonelessly replied, still facing the wall and staring at the floor.

Sarah gritted her teeth, "I know that, I mean—"

"I know what you meant," Alex grounded out.

"Well then—"

"Fine," Alex growled, sounding much like Casey, "Because I managed to infiltrate Scorpia, stop Operation Invisible Sword, indirectly kill Nile, a top student of Scorpia's, and Julia Rothman, one of the board members of Scorpia, I was shot by a sniper as I exited the headquarters of MI6, but lived because I was stepping off a curb as the bullet entered my body. Any more questions?" Alex didn't give them a chance to answer. "None? Good. Can we please find out what Walker's doing in the US? That'd be great, thanks." He began to walk out the door, "I'm going to the bathroom, I'll be right back."

Chuck and Sarah watched him leave as Casey walked over to the computer. "Come on Bartowski," he growled, "let's dig up some information on this Walker guy."

Chuck obediently followed Casey and began searching through files; Sarah came over to assist him. They both pretended not to notice as Casey left the room in the direction Alex had just went.

Once he had left Chuck turned to face Sarah in amazement. "What happened to the Casey we know?"

Sarah smiled, "I'm not sure Chuck, but it's nice to see that Casey cares."

"But why? What happened to make him suddenly care for the kid?" Chuck asked. "This morning the two of them barely spoke to each other and Casey was less than fond of Alex."

"Well, I'm sure it has something to do with the fact Alex almost died," Sarah told Chuck, "but I think it's more along the lines of something Alex must have told Casey. Casey knows a secret about the kid, and for some bizarre reason unknown to the universe, learning that affected him."

"How possible did you think that was?" Chuck inquired.

"I didn't think it would ever happen," Sarah truthfully said. "him finding out about his daughter doesn't count, as that's family and I still believe that part of him still loves Kathleen. But I never expected this, not even after working all these years with Casey."

"Great, now that we know Casey is still capable of feeling human emotions," Chuck began, "I have a more important question."

"What is it Chuck?" Sarah asked, concerned.

"What the hell does Casey know?"

[][][][][][][]

"Rider?" Casey called, knocking on the door of the bathroom, "You ok?" Casey didn't get a response. Quite frankly, he wasn't even sure why he was following the boy. He knew he shouldn't care about this British kid, but something inside him wanted to make sure the child was alright; the feeling was akin to protection. Casey scoffed at himself. Surely he wasn't developing a bond with this kid; he barely was able to communicate effectively with his own daughter.

"Go'ay," Casey heard faintly through the door. Half of him wanted to follow that idea and pretend that he never came to check on the kid. The other half wanted to make sure the kid was okay. Casey sighed and knocked again.

"Go away."

"Get out here," Casey growled.

"Why?"

"Open this door."

"Why? I just want to be left alone. Just informing you incase the lock door didn't clue you in on that."

"Alex, please—"

The door flew open and Alex stood there, anger in his eyes. "Please what? I don't want to answer any more questions; I just want to go home!"

Casey looked at the frazzled child in front of him; an oversized sweatshirt that Alex must have grabbed from the training room covered his wiry frame and hid most of his face. The knuckles on his right hand were red and a couple were bleeding. Casey assumed that he had punched the tiled wall, as he was able to catch a glimpse of a crack tile or two on the bathroom wall. Frustration rolled off of the kid, and in an unsuspecting moment of sympathy, Casey agreed to the boy's demand.

"Alright then Alex," Casey heard himself saying, "let's go to the car. Grab whatever you brought here; I'll tell Sarah and Chuck we're leaving."

An almost-smile flitted across Alex's face as he hurried to the stairs. Casey sighed, wondered how on Earth he had agreed, and walked back to the main room of Castle to bid Chuck and Sarah good night.

* * *

**So, once again, sorry. I hope it not just me having problems with the site, but meh, whatca gonna do?**

**Hope this chapter was good and you guys liked it. :)**

**Reviews are very much appreciated! :) **

**Thanks! **


	18. Chapter 18

The ride home was quiet and uneventful. Alex covered his face with the sweatshirt and sunk low into the seat. Casey, unable to know what to say to the child, simply drove in silence. They got to Casey's house and Alex bolted out of the car. Casey followed slowly and unlocked the house, Alex avoiding his eyes. Alex went to his room without a word and shut the door.

"Alex?" Casey questioned.

"I'm fine."

"Alex—"

"I'm fine. Go back to the BuyMore. Work. Do something. Just leave me the hell alone!"

"I can—"

"Just. Go."

Casey opened his mouth to say more, but just turned around to head back to work. If the kid didn't want his help, he wouldn't continue to offer. Casey went into the kitchen and wrote a note to the kid, and then he left to go back to work, shutting the door behind him.

He drove his car, blasting the music in order not to think about the British child that he had left back at his house. Walking into the BuyMore, he saw Chuck give him a concerned look, but he ignored the intersect and went to assist a customer.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Alex listened as he heard Casey walk away from the door. He waited until he heard the front door slam before allowing himself to relax.

Why? Why, why, why, why was this happening to him? No one was supposed to know that he was in the United States; of course someone from Scorpia would be in the exact same state that he was, and it had to be one of the few operatives that he knew.

He shut his eyes, his head spinning with images of Nile, Major Yu, the human targets, the organ harvesters, Julia Rothman...

Gasping, he opened his eyes. He knew that he needed to let off some steam; he needed to do something in order to get his mind off of everything. He walked over to his suitcase and grabbed his soccer ball, a gift from Tom. He exited the house and began to play soccer in the square.

Thud. Kick. Thud. Kick. The rhythm of kicking the ball against the house calmed Alex down a little. He almost didn't notice when Devon, aka Captain Awesome, came to see him.

"Alex, bro, that you?" Awesome asked. Alex stopped the ball with his foot and turned to face Devon. The man's eyes widened and he winched as he saw Alex's face. Suddenly he was all serious. "What happened?"

"Nothing," Alex replied. Devon walked over to him, stealing the soccer ball from him and keeping it trapped between his own feet.

"Alex," Awesome said, "can you come inside for a minute? Ellie's not home and we need to talk."

"No we don't," Alex told him.

"Yes Alex, we do."

Alex stared at Devon, who didn't flinch at all. Sighing, Alex allowed himself to be lead to Devon and Ellie's house. Devon ushered him inside and had him sit on the couch as he made Alex a soda. He handed him the soda then sat across from Alex.

"Now," Awesome began, "what happened?"

"I told you, nothing?"

"Did Casey hit you? I would never have thought it, but—" Devon uncomfortably said, but Alex cut him off.

"Of course not! It was nothing like that. He would never. I was helping him with…a job, and—"

"What kind of job?" Devon asked, sudden concern and weariness crossing his face. "Like at the BuyMore or his job with Sarah?"

"Wh..What?" Alex stuttered. "It was a job at the BuyMore…"

"You're a spy too, aren't you?" Awesome asked.

"No!"

"You sure?"

"I'm not a spy!"

"Then why do you have a British accent when Casey's cousin, whom I've never heard of before, is from Washington DC?"

Alex suddenly realized that in his anger his real accent had slipped in. He cursed mentally. "I don't…"

"Alex, it's okay. I know about Sarah, Casey, and even Chuck. I was actually contacted at one point to be a spy for an organization known as "The Ring". You can talk to me bro." Alex was silent, assessing Awesome with a calculating look. "Please, Alex, tell me what happened to your face."

"It's Classified."

"I'm a doctor. I can make a patient-doctor agreement with you not to reveal anything. I did it because you needed your face to be looked at."

"Bull."

Awesome gave him a smile. "Yeah, most of that it is. But I figured it couldn't hurt to try."

Alex actually smiled. "Slightly devious. Nice."

Awesome grinned again. "So you going to tell me or what?"

Alex sighed. "Yeah, I am a spy. I was with Casey and I got injured."

"How?"

"Back-handed across the face."

"Why?"

"Because he hates me."

"You know the guy that did this to you?"

"Very distantly. But further information is classified."

"Did you ice your face?"

"No."

"You should."

"Can I just go out and play more soccer? I swear I'm fine."

"It's an ugly bruise."

"Nothing I can't handle."

Awesome debated with himself for a moment. He got up to the freezer and pulled out an ice pack, wrapped it, and handed it to Alex. "A compromise. And I like how you're keeping active bro."

Alex smiled as he left the house. He left the ice on his face for a few minutes, then fell into the rhythm he had previously while he was kicking the ball. He was so absorbed in what he was doing, so in the moment and away from spies and villains and MI6 that the sound of his name being called caused him to kick the ball at the speaker; too late, he realized that it was Chuck.

Instead of the ball smacking him in the face, as Alex thought it would do, Chuck managed to perform a bicycle kick and send it back to Alex, who bounced it off his chest and stopped it with his foot.

Absolute shock covered Alex's previous anger at Chuck. "That was bloody awesome! How did you learn to do that?"

Chuck gave Alex a sheepish grin. Alex realized that the intersect allowed Chuck to perform the soccer moves. He laughed, sending the ball to Chuck once again. He was a normal teenager, just playing with a friend. Chuck kept quiet, realizing that all Alex wanted was silence, and the kid proceeded to play a modified version of one-on-one with him.

After playing for a few minutes, Chuck managed to kick the soccer ball way out of bounds. Alex, with a smile on his face, went to retrieve it. Chuck watched the kid, and was still smiling his dorky grin as a dart struck the back of his neck and he went into unconsciousness. Two men, covered in black, picked up his limp body and carried it out to a black SUV.

Alex was surprised that he was having this much fun with Chuck. He saw and ball and bent down to pick it up and his instincts took over. He dove to the floor, rolling away, as a dart struck the dirt where he had just been standing. Leaping up, his mind focusing on warning Chuck, he only just managed to dodge the kick coming his way. He was, however, unprepared for four grown men to leap out of the shadows and grab him.

"Chuck! Chu—" Alex managed to scream before a hand covered his mouth. He continued to struggle and his muffled screams suddenly ceased as a hypodermic syringe pierced his skin as he faded into unconsciousness.

* * *

**Hello all. I'm so incredibly sorry for the delay, but I hope this chapter at least partly makes up for it. I had APs and finals and computer issues. So sorry. :(**

**If you want, you can skip these, they're just a couple questions I have regarding AR. **

**Does anyone know how to get another series added to this site. I have an idea for an Alex Rider and I,Q crossover but idk where to put it. Would anyone be interested in reading it?**

**I was on YouTube the other day and spent a decent amount of time looking for an AR/Chuck video. THERE WERE NONE! I was kind of depressed. Anyone want to make one to satisfy my need, lol. I have no idea how to make YouTube videos (shameful of a teenager, I know). It doesn't have to relate to my stuff, I just need something. (I offer bribes, lol). :) **

**Thanks if you read all that!**

**Please review! **


	19. Chapter 19

"Casey, phone call for you," Big Mike came over and told him. Casey wondered who could be calling him at the BuyMore. He went over and picked up the phone.

"John Casey," he announced his presence over the phone.

"Casey, bro? That you?"

"Devon Woodcomb?" Casey wanted to make sure, though he didn't know many people who would call him "bro".

"Casey? Sorry, but I don't have your cell number. Which, now that I think of it is really bad considering all that can happen and—"

"Point please," Casey interrupted him.

"It's Alex and Chuck," Devon said and Casey's heart stopped, "they've been taken."

[][][][][][]

Sarah was going through the video feed that she had just obtained. Due to a technological glitch that Beckman had been unable to prevent, she and Chuck had been unable to watch the live video from the Café. Now she was sifting through it to try to get a clear shot of Walker's face to run through recognition. She was re-watching the clip of Alex getting backhanded across the face, her fists clenched when her cell phone buzz.

"Walker," she answered.

"Sarah Walker?" a voice asked, "This is Ed Shulsky. You wanted to speak to me?"

"Oh, hello Ed. How are you?"

"Good, and yourself?"

"Good. I called because I have been paired with a British agent on an assignment, and I was wondering if you knew anything about him."

"Why do you think I would know him?"

"I heard that you were on Drevin's island when the British project, Ark Angel, blew up. My new partner was there as well."

"We only had one British agent there, and I doubt he's would be paired with you."

"I have a name, Ed, and I need information."

"If we're talking about the same person, I can't give you any information."

"I know you can't, but I was hoping you'd do this as a favor. You do owe me."

"Do I?"

"Remember that time in London with the crossdresser-"

"OK, OK, yes, I suppose I do owe you one. Tell me the name and, if it's the same person, I'll tell you what I know."

"Alex Rider."

Ed sighed. "Figured. Glad to hear he's still alive. What do you want to know?"

"Everything."

"No can do. Specifics only. Sorry Sarah, but I don't know much on the kid myself."

"Fine. Why was he on Drevin's island?"

"He had managed to make friends with Drevin's kid, Paul, while the two of them were in the hospital. Alex saved his life somehow and Drevin took him on vacation. Byrne worked with the kid once before and asked him to see if anything was up while he was vacationing there .Of course, things went South, but at the end of the day, Alex had saved the world; again, according to Byrne."

"What else happened? What else did Alex do?"

"Sarah, I can't tell you. I've already said more than I should."

"Please. Just one thing he did."

"Saw planet Earth."

"Wait, what?"

"Goodbye Sarah. Next time I need a favor, I'll called you."

"Ed!"

"Until next time," Ed said as he ended the call.

"Yeah, until next time," Sarah muttered to herself as she closed her phone.

She sighed and walked over to the computer. She had decided to research more about project Ark Angel and what it was. Skimming through the files, Sarah gathered that Ark Angel was a British project; it was to be the first hotel in space. However, it was over budget and over time when it was destroyed and burned up in Earth's atmosphere.

"A space hotel? Must be a British thing..." Sarah muttered as she looked at the blueprints of the space station. As she was looking at the window through which guest would be able to look down and see Earth, she had a crazy thought.

"He saw space..." Sarah murmured. "No...that's impossible." But she continued to stare at the blueprints until Casey's pounding footsteps down the stairs startled her out of her musing.

"Wha—" she began, but Casey cut her off.

"Get loaded up now," he told her tersely.

"Casey, I—"

"Now!"

Shaken by his tone and seriousness, Sarah hurriedly got her gear together and went with Casey to his car. She nearly had to run to keep up with his rapid pace.

Once the two of them were in the car, Casey careening down the streets, Sarah finally was able to get a word in.

"Casey, what happened?" she tentatively asked.

Casey's hands clenched the steering wheel even tighter; his knuckles turned white. "It's Chuck and Alex. Someone's taken them."

[][][][][][][][][]

His head hurt. A dull throbbing pain, like a head ache that never goes away. Like MI6 and Blunt never went away. Blunt! Damn it, everything always went back to Blunt.

Alex cleared his head and opened his eyes. He saw Chuck to his left, bound and gagged, but awake and seemingly okay. Alex himself was bound and gagged, and laying on the floor of a van. The steady rhythm of the van along with the occasional bumps told Alex that these men were still on the move. He just wanted to know where he was being taken.

Alex looked over at Chuck, who was staring at the boy, his eyes full of concern. Alex nodded his head a bit to show Chuck that he was alright, and that seemed to placate the man. Looking at Chuck, Alex saw that he was scared; Chuck had no idea what was going on and was not accustomed to being in these situations. Unlike Alex, who seemed to be in situations like these quite often, but that didn't mean that he enjoyed them.

Alex tried to turn over to get a glimpse of his captors; however a boot on the shoulder stopped him. He rolled his eyes as he shook off the foot on his shoulder. They hit a bump and Alex, with his hands tied behind his back, was unable to prevent his face from hitting the floor of the van. He groaned in pain when he hurt his face even more.

His head hurt. He was tired. He just wanted to sleep. He wanted to go back to England. To see Tom. To see Jack. He would even consider sitting through another awkward dinner with Casey at this point.

Casey! At least Casey and Sarah would come for Chuck, and by extension, himself. Alex didn't need to wait for hours for help that would never come from MI6. But how would they find them? He had no gadgets…his knife! Maybe when he and Chuck were untied and alone he could get them out and Chuck could use his intersect skills to get them out of whatever mess the two of them were in.

His eyes flickered. He was tired. He was so tired. He just wanted to sleep. Sleep…

[][][][][][][][][]

"They're here sir."

"Excellent! Both the Intersect and the child?" Volkoff asked.

"Yes sir."

"I have so been waiting to see them, both of them. The Intersect, who holds the secrets I yearn to know, and the Rider boy, a fellow countryman and a state secret in his own right. Isn't this just wonderful!"

"Yes, sir."

"Who should I see first? The Intersect is so much power, but the boy…the child is so much more interesting. I believe I'll speak to the boy first. To Alex."

"Alright sir."

Volkoff put his hands together and smiled. "Alex Rider. What secrets do you hold for me, boy?"

[][][][][][][][][]

A rough jolt shook Alex awake. He stirred, but was constricted by his bonds. He opened his eyes and saw Chuck being led out of the van by armed men. He tried to sit up, but was simply picked up and thrown over the shoulder of a heavily muscled man.

They walked, Chuck lead by the men, Alex, thrown over the shoulder. As the group came to a divergence in the hallway, Alex felt a pit in his stomach. His worst nightmare came true was he headed down the left hallway and Chuck was taken to the right. Alex started squirming and screaming, the sounds muffled by his gag.

Chuck too, was struggling, trying to get back to Alex. He thrashed and almost got away, but was restrained by the larger captor. His eyes were wide with fear as he continued to struggle, but was unsuccessful. Alex watched with a growing sense of dread and horror as Chuck disappeared around the corner.

Alex continued to squirm and he attempted to kick his captor. After a few futile attempts, he managed to land a kick. His captor cuffed him around the head.

"One more move like that and you'll find yourself in more pain then you can imagine," Alex's captor warned him.

Alex's despair only grew as he was carried down the hallway and further away for Chuck and whatever help the Intersect could provide.

* * *

**Wow, I can't believe how long it's been since I update. I would like to apoligize to everyone. And I would like to thank you all for continuing to read this! Hope this chapter semi-makes up for it. **

**Thank you all! **

**And please review! :) **


	20. Chapter 20

Alex sagged against his bonds, thoroughly worn out. He looked up at his captor and Volkoff smiled cruelly down at the child.

"Are you positive you don't want to say anything Alex?" he asked as he grabbed the child's chin and forced the boy to look deep into his eyes.

"I already told you—just go to hell and leave me alone you sick—"

A punch to his gut cut off the rest of what he was going to say, but Volkoff knew it would be nothing beneficial, but rather a insult of some sort. For the past twenty minutes, Volkoff had been questioning Alex, but the boy had remained tight lipped about everything government. He mostly curse and yelled at the older man.

Volkoff waved his hand and Jameson, one of his guards, stepped back, glaring at the fresh-mouthed child.

"Another word out of you Alex, and I'll stop playing nice," the man told the child.

Alex glared defiantly at the man standing in front of him, "This is your idea of playing nice? Giving me a bunch new bruises to add to my rapidly growing collection? At least some of the other psychos offered me tea before I died. Do you have no shred of decency?"

Volkoff finally snapped and backhanded Alex across the face, right where Walker hit him less than 24 hours ago. A small cry of pain escaped his lips and his head snapped back and wacked the chair he was tied to.

"I am losing my patience boy!"

"Patience is the virtue I'm best at screwing around with."

Volkoff's calm demeanor was replaced by a look of fury and he snatched a knife from the table and held it to Alex's throat. Alex said nothing, but gave the enraged man a steely glare.

"One more word and I'll draw blood," the man threatened. Alex rolled his eyes and gave a little huff. "Something to say Rider?"

"Yeah, actually. If I'm dead, you'll never learn anything."

Patience long gone, Volkoff let loose a snarl and his drew the knife down across Alex's chest, ripping his shirt and drawing blood. In a shock of pain, Alex hissed as the blood ran down his stomach.

Regretting losing his composure, Volkoff took a few moments to calm himself down, before turning to the boy currently tired tightly to a chair. "I'm done with the boy for now," he told Jameson and the man nodded, "Bring in his companion. Maybe he'll be a little more willing to talk to me."

Chest burning, Alex was led from the room, hands behind his back, as Volkoff breathed deeply, preparing for his encounter with Chuck Bartowski, the Human Intersect.

The genius was furious; furious at himself for losing his temper, and furious at the boy for causing him to become angry. He didn't realize that his fellow countryman would be so hard to break—he was only a teenager after all! But throughout the physical beating that had occurred, Alex had only been snarky, sarcastic, and rude. It was enough to make any man lose his cool!

As the doors once again opened, Chuck was ushered in and thrust into the chair that Rider had previously occupied. As the man strained against his captors and tried to break free, Volkoff only watched in amusement.

"Hello Chuck," he began.

"Let us go, leave us alone," the Intersect pleaded.

"Now my friend, I really can't do that," Volkoff smoothly replied. "You are quite valuable to me."

"They let Alex go! He's just a kid, wrong place at the wrong time. He's got nothing to do with me or the Intersect."

"That, my friend, is where you are wrong. That young boy, the young Alex Rider, might even be as valuable as you, maybe even more so depending on…certain things."

"He's just a kid! You can't honestly think—"

"I know who he is, Charles."

"You—"

"I know he is a spy for MI6. I know how successful he is. I know that he has made many enemies. And I know that children are breakable. I will break him, learn the secrets he holds, and maybe even expose the Secret Intelligence Service and spread mistrust in the British county. After all, why would you believe a government that uses a teenager to do their dirty work?"

"You can't—"

"Ah, but I can Charles. I am a man of power, and I am a man of action. I know what I want, and I do whatever means necessary to get it. I want the government to crumble. I want to learn the secrets of the Intersect. And I make sure I get what I want."

"Please," Chuck pleaded, worried for the boy. He hadn't seen Alex since the two of them were captured, and he had no idea how the child was.

"I'm sorry Charles, but I cannot do that."

"If you don't let him go, I won't do anything you ask me. I'll be uncooperative and I'll cause trouble and—"

"You're babbling and not helping either you or the boy right now Charles," Volkoff told the clearly nervous agent. "I can do whatever I want, and more importantly, you will do whatever I want. Little Alex has already learned that lesson the hard way."

"Alex has—wait what? You…you…what—what did you do to him?"

"Taught him a lesson. He was a rather fresh boy. Rude to his elders and all that."

"You kidnapped him! I'm be rude as well!"

"But that is all the more reason to obey and respect me. Trust me Charles on that. You want some advice? You show me some proper respect and cooperate with me, I can guarantee that you stay here will be much easier than it will be if you refuse."

The spy looked at him, deep in thought for a few moments. Volkoff said nothing, but let the man think. After the silence stretched on, Chuck looked up, grim determination in his eye.

"Alex didn't give in did he?" he asked, smiling at the momentary look of outrage that crossed Volkoff's face.

"He did not."

"Then you know my answer. I stand by Alex."

"Are you sure Charles? It would be so much easier for you? And, according to my sources, Alex has experienced pain before. It might be a new, unwelcome experience for you."

"I'm with Alex. You do anything to hurt him and I will kill you."

Volkoff smiled. "I would love to see you try Charles. You seem to care a lot for this child, don't you? Wouldn't it be quite…tragic…if something were to happen to him? Perhaps he'd lose a finger or two? His ability to speak? Maybe he'd even lose his life. You need to learn not to care too much Charles; it's bad for someone in your profession. That's some more free advice for you."

He turned to one of his men, shooting a Chuck a sinister smile before he spoke. "Bring the child back. I think he and Chuck need to have a…talk."

"You leave him alone! Alone!" Chuck frantically began screaming, struggling to get lose.

Volkoff picked up the knife that he had already used on Alex and twirled in carefully in his hands, Chuck panicking even more and screaming even louder. The reflection of the light off the blade match the cruel shine in Volkoff's eyes as he watched the door.

* * *

**Guys, I don't have words to express how truely sorry I am. I've been doing college apps, and they've taken up so much of my time. I should be back more regularly though, so I hope I'm semi-forgiven, and feel free to bother me so I put that the next chapter really fast. **

**Love you all! **

**Thank you and please review! **


	21. Chapter 21

Alex was led to a vacant room, and thrown through the door. Hands tied, he twisted his body in order to land on his side rather than his face. While he saved his face more pain, he did nothing to help his chest.

"Damn," he hissed and his chest reacted in pain. He was sore everywhere, but was positive that he would only feel worse tomorrow. Blood was seeping down toward the top of his shorts, staining them.

Struggling to sit up, he breathed rapidly and painfully as his he exerted whatever energy he had left. Successfully, he managed to get in the upright position and he rested his back against a wall.

"Crazed bastard," Alex muttered as he shifted to find a comfortable position without putting unneeded pressure on his arms. He needed to get out of here. He needed to leave before the Volkoff did something very drastic. But before he left, he needed to save Chuck. Volkoff was probably giving the Intersect a really rough time. And no matter what Chuck may think about his own abilities, he was in way over his head.

_Click._ Alex's head jerked up as he heard the sound of the lock. Could they be bringing Chuck back already? Or were they bringing news. He could be….dead. He couldn't. Alex didn't even realize he was holding his breath as the man walked through the door. It was Jameson, with a cruel smile of his face.

"Come on Rider," he said, "The boss wants to see you again."

"Why?" Alex challenged, hoping he sounded braver than he thought.

"Your friend needs some…incentive. And you will be just the thing to make him talk.

"Go to hell," Alex snarled, wanting to back further away from this man but prevent by the wall.

Jameson laughed, grasping Alex's arm and yanking him to his feet. Unsteady, he stumbled and fell against the older man, who shoved him back on his own two feet. The entire way back to the "questioning room", Alex struggled with the man and was as uncooperative as he could possibly be. He dragged his feet until he reached the door, where he slumped against his captor in defeat.

Alex felt Jameson's hands relax slightly on their hold of him. As Jameson opened the door, Alex acted.

He bolted. Jameson's slack hands could not hold him back and Alex took advantage of that and raced down the hallway. He took as right at the first divergent he came to and continued to run. He heard an announcement and tried to increase his speed, ignoring his sore muscles.

Someone in a lab coat came out of a door and Alex hit him head on, sending them both sprawling onto the ground. Before the man had registered what had happened, Alex had knocked him out. He stood back up and was about to begin to run again, when an object in the office caught his eye.

"A phone," he whispered, "thank god." Dragging the man back into his office, Alex picked up the phone and almost screamed with joy when he heard the dial tone. He dialed Casey's number, which he had memorized after the incident at the café.

"Casey, pick up. Pick up, pick up, pick up, pick up," he chanted under his breath as he waited for the man to answer.

"Hello?" a gruff voice answered.

"Casey? Casey, it's Alex!"

"Alex! Are you—"

"Casey, listen to me! Chuck and I are being held somewhere. You need to get to him! I'm in an office now, but they're looking for me. I'm leaving the phone off the hook so you can trace it. Please get here as soon as you can!"

"Alex, Sarah and I are on our way. Don't leave the phone, stay where you are."

Alex shook his head even though Casey couldn't see it. "I can't Casey, they're looking for me. If they find me in here with the phone, I don't know what they'll do. They need to think I was unable to do anything. Then they won't hurt Chuck Good bye Casey. Thanks for everything." He place the phone down and began to move toward the door.

"Alex! Alex! You listen to me—don't you dare leave the room! We're on our way, we'll—" Alex shut the door, drowning out Casey's pleadings.

"You can do this Rider," he whispered to himself as he took off running down the hall again.

[][][][][][][][][][][]

Casey and Sarah had been driving around for a few hours now, looking for clues to where Alex and Chuck could be. They had gone to Devon's house first in order to question the doctor.

Devon had come back downstairs from a call with his mom when he saw men dressed in black carrying Alex and Chuck out to a van. Devon had taken a few pictures in order to show them to Sarah and Casey and as soon as the van left (heading right) has disappeared. The two agents had checked out the scene and found no leads.

The phone ringing only served to deepen Casey's anger and annoyance when he did not recognize the number.

"Hello?" he answered, annoyed. Once he knew it was Alex, he was already tracing the call to get a location on the kid.

He wasn't really absorbing anything that the boy said until he mentioned that he was leaving the phone. The Casey began yelling for Alex to stay put and not to do anything risky. However, as soon as he heard the door click, he knew Alex was gone.

"Damn it," Casey hissed and he clenched his fist in frustration.

"I have a trace on the call," Sarah told him, a sad smile on her face. "We can get to him in time."

"Where to?" Casey asked.

"A private lab on the outskirts of Burbank. It's small and under the radar. The perfect place to hide someone," Sarah told him. Tires screeched as Casey made a sharp right.

"Be ready when we get there," he told Sarah with grim determination.

[][][][][][][][][][][][]

Chuck felt like crying when Alex was thrown to the floor, hands and feet bound with a gag in his mouth. Blood was drying from a cut on his forehead and the child look like he had been hit by a Mac truck.

The boy's weary eyes sought Chuck's and held the man's in a chilling gaze. Chuck knew the international spy was trying to tell him something, but he was to confused to try to figure it out.

"Now Charles," Volkoff spoke and looked with distain at Alex, who was lying at his feet, "I was hoping you could tell me a bit about this particular symbol I have here?"

Volkoff held up a piece of paper with a man dressed in Roman garment holding a severed head inside a circle with squares, triangles, and other shapes inscribed around it. Chuck flashed on the logo, but said nothing.

"Well Charles?" Volkoff asked, "What did you see?"

"Nothing," Chuck replied.

"That answer is unacceptable Charles," Volkoff replied. "What does it mean?"

"The Intersect hasn't been undated with that information," Chuck told him.

"And is that why your eyelids went all funny?" Volkoff inquired leaning down to look at Chuck with a predatory smile on his lips. "Don't play games with me Charles. You can't win."

"I'm not playing games," Chuck insisted.

Volkoff sighed and motioned with his hand. "Reed, if you would." The man moved from his position and pulled Alex up from the ground. The boy's eyes widened as the man held a knife to his throat.

"So Charles," Volkoff looked back at the man tied to the chair, "you were saying?"

Chuck's breath hitched and he looked at Alex. The boy shook his head for an emphatically to tell him "no!"

"Alex, my dear chap, do play nicely," Volkoff warned. Alex glared dangerously at the man and said something, probably very rude, that was muffled by his gag. "Now Charles," he addressed the man, "this is what happens when you don't cooperate.

One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Before Chuck could even register what had happen, Alex had been cut with the knife five times in a row, one underneath the other, on his left shoulder. The cuts weren't too deep, but they probably hurt like hell. But Alex hadn't said a word.

Chuck watched in horror as the blood seeped down the boy's arm and dripped onto the floor. He stared at Alex, who was a little paler but still had determination and anger written across his face.

A tapping on the door caused the occupants of the room to look at the source of the sound and the man on the other side held up a cell phone. Volkoff grinned.

"Ah, I believe that's for me," he announced to the room. He looked over at shoulder as he moved toward the door. "I'm expecting a call from SCORPIA."

Chuck looked as Alex as the boy went deathly pale and began to breathe deeply and frantically, eyes wide in fear.

"And my dear boy," Volkoff continued, "the topic of conversation is you."

Chuck's heart stopped.

* * *

**Hope this was worth the long wait guys-so sorry!**

**Please review-thanks soooo much :) **


	22. Chapter 22

Chuck was panicking; Alex was in the cell with him, unconscious and covered in blood. They had guards outside their door, and Alex was in no shape to escape. Chuck could barely move himself, but that was due to his bound hands. He was sore, so very sore, and his muscles ached as he leaned against a wall.

Tired was what he felt. He used to love being a spy; the cool missions, gadgets, Sarah, and the reassurance that the Intersect would save him. Now he was weary, knowing that there was a darker side to this business and young people suffered for it. Chuck gazed at the unmoving boy across the room. Alex had suffered so much for a world that he clearly didn't want to be a part of. Chuck was still unclear why he was in it in the first place.

Sighing, Chuck made the decision to get up. He and Alex had been stuck in the cell for hours, and Alex had stopped moving long ago. Struggling to stand, Chuck decided to forgo the idea and just crawl over to the unconscious boy. Once he was at Alex's side, his heart dropped.

Blood was everywhere, both crusty old blood and fresh red blood covered the boy's body. Chuck wanted to vomit when his saw the knife marks parallel on Alex's arm. Those five marks were his fault. If Chuck had told Volkoff about Operation Medusa, then Alex wouldn't have gotten hurt.

Alex shouldn't even have been brought here, Chuck though angrily. Volkoff only wanted him and the secrets inside his head; Alex had simply been another prize needed to impress SCORPIA. Chuck was determined to get the boy out of whatever hellhole they were in before he was hurt again.

Chuck tried to remember everything the Ellie had ever taught him about caring for someone with wounds this bad. Ironically enough, his mind was going blank. He was too worried to even think straight.

Alex didn't deserve this; that was the one thought that kept running through his head. Whatever was going to happen, Chuck knew that he would do whatever it took to save Alex, just like the child had save him.

"_Volkoff, please! Don't give them Alex," Chuck pleaded before Volkoff life the room to talk to SCORPIA. "Take me instead."_

_Volkoff stared at the spy with a calculating look on his face. He walked over to the chair that Chuck was tied too and stared deeply into the man's eyes. _

"_You're prepared to face the dangers of SCORPIA alone?" Volkoff asked. "Are you __really__ ready to be tortured, starved, and most likely killed? All for the sake of some child you don't even know?_

"_I don't have to know him!"Chuck shouted, "I won't let him be hurt by those people!"_

"_You don't have a choice, Charles. Though it is touching to see how much you care for the little lad." Chuck could see Alex rolling his eyes on the other side of the room at Volkoff's remark. _

"_He's just a kid," Chuck muttered, and Volkoff heard. _

"_But, don't you see Charles? He's so much more! He is perfect! Unnoticeable, unsusceptible, covert, smart, daring; I could go on and on! I have been following this child's progress for a couple of months now; I what I've learned has absolutely shocked me! Do you know why Charles?"_

"_No, but I feel like you're going to tell me anyway."_

_Volkoff let out a laugh. "You're starting to sound like your young British friend over there. Be careful where that mouth can take you Charles."_

"_I'll bear that in mind."_

"_He's amazing Charles! He has a success rate of 100%! He's escaped death many times, and managed to bring down one of the most world-renowned criminal organizations before he was even fifteen! Do you know just how powerful a pawn he is?"_

"_He's not a pawn to be used in some sick game! He's a child! A kid with a real life!"_

"_Unfortunately, when someone is so good at something, they lose what should be dear to them."_

"_What?"_

"_Alex is so good at what he does, that he cannot have a 'real life' as you called it. He would best be put to use by powerful and strong organizations."_

"_He has and he doesn't like it!" Chuck shouted at the madman. _

"_Pity. Unfortunately, it is not up for him to decide."_

"_But you can?"_

"_Of course I can, Charles. I hold his life in my hands."_

"_You could do the right thing and give it back," Chuck implored, grasping at straws to keep Alex out of any trouble._

"_I could, but I won't. The child is too valuable."_

"_He's not some piece of art or jewelry!"_

"_Of course not Charles," Volkoff replied with a cruel grin. "He's so, so much more."_

"_He's in this room, you know," a voice commented. Both Chuck and Volkoff whipped their heads around to face Alex. The boy had managed to loosen his gag and it not hung around his neck. Unfortunately, his arms and legs were still bound._

"_I didn't forget you my dear boy," Volkoff assured. _

_Alex rolled his eyes, "Yeah, I was afraid of that. Look, you're a businessman, right?"_

"_Correct," Volkoff replied. _

"_Then let me offer you a deal."_

_The man laughed. "I'm all ears, child."_

"_Go talk to SCORPIA. Tell them that you were unable to capture the Intersect, but you managed to grab me."_

"_What are you saying, exactly?"_

"_Take me instead of Chuck."_

"_Alex, no!" Chuck cried, struggling against his bonds furiously. _

"_Shut up Chuck," Alex replied, not taking his eyes off the British man in front of him. _

"_Why would you risk your life for someone you don't even know?" Volkoff asked_

"_You already had that conversation with Chuck," Alex responded, "and I really don't want to hear your voice more than I need to." _

_Smack! Chuck clenched his fists in anger and Volkoff slapped Alex across the face. Alex said nothing, but simply looked up at the man coldly. _

"_Stop, please, stop," Chuck pleaded. "I'm more important and—"_

"_Shut. Up. Now." Alex commanded, not taking his eyes off Volkoff. _

"_Now Alex, I'm honored that you proposed a deal, but sadly, I must decline."_

"_Bastard," Alex muttered. _

"_I think that your American friend needs to learn some of the…shall we say finer…points in the spying game," Volkoff said. "Jackson?"He looked at the man who had stood patiently by the door. "Have fun." And he left the room in order to make his call with SCORPIA. _

Chuck shook his head, trying to clear the images of Jackson beating Alex from his mind. As soon as he knew what Jackson was going to do, Chuck shut his eyes. But he couldn't block his ears from hearing grunts of pain, the occasional scream, and the guard's cruel laughter.

SCORPIA wanted Alex. Volkoff had told him so when he returned with a bloody smile on his face. Even when the man looked at the barely conscious boy on the floor, his smile didn't falter. He had simply asked Chuck if he learned anything educational.

Chuck was ready to rip Volkoff apart. After all the pain he caused Chuck, he had to use Alex to cause him more guilt and hurt? And Alex had taken it as no one else could; Chuck couldn't forgive himself.

Never before had the Intersect felt so helpless. Looking at Alex's body, he realized how small, young, and fragile the child was. The blood coating the boy's skin didn't help matters at all.

"Casey, Sarah, I really need your help," Chuck muttered. "Please."

But there was no answer, only silence in the cell.

* * *

**Hey, sorry for the wait.**

**PLEASE REVIEW! MANY THANKS! :)**

**Hey guys, if you're interested, I wrote a crossover between Batman and Alex Rider (it will be a 3-shot). I'm be most please if you checked it out and let me know what you thought. Thanks so much! ~Pulchra Fabula **


	23. Chapter 23

Sarah Walker, international spy of the CIA, fearless, dangerous, and courageous, was terrified. She clenched the armrests of the seat as Casey sped around the corner at break-neck speed, narrowly missing a pedestrian and clipping the curb.

"Casey…" Sarah began to say, but a snarl silence her. Clenching her fists, Sarah closed her mouth and didn't say what she wanted to. Eyeing the speedometer, she was thankful that she had radioed ahead and warned the cops they'd be speeding through. Otherwise, Casey probably would have sent a fist towards the face of anyone of the cops who tried to pull them over.

A red light. A stop. A tense moment in the car for the two seasoned agents. Sarah could hear Casey's deep breathing and she knew that there was a greater reason for his nervousness than just simply Chuck. Of course the man was worried for his friend, but Sarah knew that this was a new level of panic. Chuck had been kidnapped and hurt before, but Casey and Sarah always managed to find and save him without the two spies losing control of their emotions like Casey was now.

What was the variable factor in this? Sarah wanted to say Alex, but she knew that Casey didn't care for children…usually. It wasn't Volkoff, or SCORPIA, and that left Alex as the only option. Who would have thought?

Sarah's stomach dropped as Casey made a sharp right and continued to speed down the street. Cold-hearted Casey was doing all of this for Alex. Alex, a teenage British spy. Alex, who must have told Casey something important for the man to have such a drastic reaction to the boy's kidnapping.

Sarah had her own information on the boy, but she didn't think that right now would be the ideal time to share it. Besides, maybe Casey already knew it, although it was a bit much for him to be _this_ upset over Alex going into space.

It had to be SCORPIA. That's what must have sent Casey into a tizzy. He must know the entire scope of Alex's connection to SCORPIA—but how was that possible? Sarah still didn't believe that Alex could be linked to them, even if the proof was staring her in the face and on tape. He was a child, a teenager; not some little ninja.

Are you sure? That little voice in the back of her mind nagged at her. Sarah tried to disregard it, but the facts kept coming. He took you down so easily, he too _Casey_ down quickly as well. He has clearance to view your files. He is on a first name basis with Joe Byrne—Joe Byrne! Head of the CIA!

He's worked with the CIA as well—multiple times. And he's been with MI6 and who knows what else! Face it Sarah, the voice in her head told her, whatever he is, he is not a child.

He has had a history and Casey knows it. Once she decided that, Sarah was able to see much more clearly. Casey knew more about Alex's assassination attempt then either she or Chuck did. He had managed to gain Alex's trust—god knows how!

"ETA three minutes," Casey spat out. He said it in such an annoyed tone, like someone who had just found out their flight was delayed and they had to wait 7 hours for the next one. Sarah knew how much Alex was effecting him—time couldn't go by fast enough.

Sarah was mentally preparing herself, and worrying about Alex. Unbidden, thoughts of Alex acting just like a normal teenager came to the forefront of her mind.

"_Yes Morgan. I totally understand. Yes," Sarah sighed, "of course I'll tell Chuck. Okay. Yeah, alright. Bye." Closing the phone Sarah descended the stairs and was greeted by the sight of Alex, sitting at the table, books sprawled all over the table. _

_He had his iPod in and was staring intently at a large textbook, pen in his right hand. She was hidden from his sight, though if he turned to his left just a bit, he would see her. He tapped it against the table as he stared with a confused countenance at the book. _

_Feeling slightly awkward for walking in on Alex when he was so calm and focused, Sarah stopped on the stairs and, ignoring the total invasion of privacy, she observed the British teenager. _

_He flipped the pages back and forth as he re-read a few passages. With a loud sigh, he closed the book with a loud slam and leaned back in his chair, glaring hatefully at the textbook. _

"_Lang can stuff it," he muttered, shoving his book to the side and pulling out another book. Sarah noticed it was __The Picture of Dorian Gray__. Alex spared a glance at his watch before sighing again and opening the book. _

_Sarah watched in silence as Alex dutifully annotated and highlighted certain parts of the book. Unlike when he was in a room with them, Alex was relaxed. He was still cautious, but he was not as vigilant as he normally was. _

_A buzzing had Sarah reaching for her gun and ready to sprint down the remaining stairs. Thankfully, Alex picked up his cell phone and Sarah relaxed her guard. Looking at the number, he pulled out his earphone and smiling he answered the phone._

"_Hey Tom," he said with a trace of smile lingering on his face. "No one's around—I'm going to put you on speaker so I can still get stuff done while you talk my ear off." Sarah missed the boy's remark as Alex took the phone away from his ear and, putting it on speaker, placed it on the table._

"_So can you hear me?" Alex asked. _

"_Loud and clear James Bond," the boy, Tom, replied on the other end of the wire. _

_Alex rolled his eyes. "Haha, you're so funny Tom."_

"_That's why you hang out with me," Tom shot back, "someone has to be the funny on in this friendship and it sure as hell isn't you."_

"_Hey! I can be funny!"_

_A snort came from the other end of the line. "Sure Alex. Whatever helps you sleep at night."_

"_Oh shove it," Alex told him jokingly. "How's things over there? Jack okay?"_

"_She's doing fine," Tom responded. "Misses you a lot, but she's glad she can at least talk to you on this mission."_

"_Yeah, she mentioned that when I called her last night. How's your life going?"_

"_My parents still suck, but I'm dealing. How are things over there with you?"_

"_They're…" Alex began and thought about it for a bit. He didn't say anything and Tom called him out on it._

"_What are they Alex?"he questioned. _

"_They aren't too bad," Alex responded. _

"_The oaf?"_

_Alex chuckled, and Sarah grinned at the genuine sound coming from the boy's mouth. "Casey's alright."_

"_If he gives you any problems, let me know and I'll come over there and set him straight."_

_A laugh—a real laugh—emerged from Alex's mouth and Sarah grinned widely in joy. "Yeah Tom, you'll set him straight."_

"_Hey Sarah!" Chuck's voice startled the spy as he came crashing down the stairs, missing Sarah's rapid hand movements motioning him to keep quiet. Alex's head jolted up and he quickly took his cell off speaker. Sarah and Chuck came down the stairs, Sarah acting like she had just arrived. _

"_Uh huh. Yep. Alright Tom." Alex glanced over at the two agents and scowled, his tenseness back in place again. "Got to go. Yeah, I'll text you later. Bye." The teenager hung up the phone and, barely sparing Chuck and Sarah a glance, returned to his book. _

"Here," Casey barked as he and Sarah sprinted out of the car, guns drawn. The quickly went through the compound, but not a soul was there.

Sarah burst into the last room, paused and put her gun away. "Casey," she called, "found something."

Casey arrived in the room as fast as he could, swore, and swung his fist at the wall. Stalking out of the room, he went to further search the compound. Sarah stood there and continued to stare at the blood on the ground staining the otherwise spotless floor.

* * *

**I'm so sorry for the long wait! Enjoy and please review. **

**And, if you guys want to be really awesome, I have a completed 3-shot of an Alex Rider and Batman crossover. I'm really appriciate it if you guys checked it out and dropped me a review. **

**Thanks! :) **


	24. Chapter 24

The worst feeling in the world is waking up, not knowing where you were, and being completely helpless. Chuck, as he was not usually taken prisoner, never truly understood the immense fear that came with capture and transport. He was panicking; there was no other word for it.

Sarah and Casey were the ones trained for such things—not him. Chuck usually relied on the Intersect to get him out of problems. Now he was out of options and he couldn't come up with any ideas; his mind was too filled with worry for Alex.

Alex, the teenager who had ties to SCORPIA. Alex, the international spy. Alex, the boy who had softened Casey's heart. And Chuck had no idea where the teen was—or where he himself was for that matter.

He was blindfolded, tied up, and gagged. Chuck listened carefully for any noise, but he heard nothing, so he concluded that he was alone. So where was Alex?

Chuck ransacked his brain trying to remember what he could last recall. Alex was unconscious in the cell when Jameson and two other goons barged in and took the teen away. Chuck faintly recalled he tried to put up of fight, but in the end his efforts were futile. Jameson had then stuck something Chuck's arm while the man struggled and everything went black.

Judging by the different smell and temperature of the room he was in, Chuck assumed that he had been moved; he and Alex had been separated even further. Chuck slammed his feet against the floor in frustration; why would Alex pay the price for an op he didn't even want to be on. It wasn't fair.

_Life isn't fair_ the saying came unbidden into his mind and he scowled and mumbled some choice words. No matter what, no one should experience what Alex had.

_Thud!_ Chuck stilled as the unexpected noise sounded through whatever building he was being held at. Chuck had assumed that he was alone, but clearly someone else was lurking. Clenching his jaw in anger, Chuck resolved to beat the next person who came through the door, escape, find Alex, and get the hell out of here.

Steeling himself to face the brutal henchmen he believed to be coming, Chuck muttered a quick prayer to anyone out there listening for Alex's safety, and waited for his moment to attack.

[][][][][][][][][][][][]

Sarah bit her lower lip in sadness; she refused to let her emotions get in the way of finding Chuck and Alex. She was a spy—a professional for gods' sake!

Choosing to follow Casey, she stealthy crept down the hall, making sure to cover Casey's back. The usually detached and emotionless spy was forgetting half of what he had learned as he was so absorbed in locating Alex.

They formed a bond, Sarah's mind supplied as the female spy noticed the rigid posture of Casey—conveying all of the pent-up anger and frustration the man felt.

Only few people in Casey's life had been able to affect the man in such a way; Sarah believed that Casey was beginning to view Alex as more than an associate, more than a partner; he was treating the British teenager like his son.

It all made sense, Sarah thought as the two agents continued to wind their way through the maze of corridors and rooms in the building. The protective nature that Casey was having with Alex matched what he felt for his daughter. As Sarah studied the man, she reflected that, although Casey was a bit rough around the edges, he would have made a good father.

A thumping noise made Casey and Sarah halt in their tracks. Snapping her head around and pointing her gun, Sarah double-check that no one had snuck-up on them. Casey did the same from his position up front.

"What was that?" Sarah hissed, as she and Casey moved back-to-back in order to protect each other.

"No idea," Casey responded, his eyes analyzing the area. He motioned with his gun down the hall. "Came from that direction."

Sarah nodded, "Let's go check it out then." Slowly and carefully treading down the hall, the two agents stopped when they heard another sound coming from behind a locked door.

Casey held up three fingers, counted down, busted the lock and he and Sarah ran into the room, guns drawn. Sarah came to a sudden halt as she looked down at the figure tied to a chair in front of them.

"Chuck?" she gasped rushing to his side. Casey growled and swept the room for explosives or any other threatening device. Sarah ripped the gag out of Chuck's mouth and removed his blindfold as Casey knelt to untie the Intersect.

"Sarah?" he croaked, relief filling his face when he saw her gazing down at him.

"I'm here Chuck, I'm here," Sarah repeated as Chuck stood up and embraced her. Chuck turned to face Casey, hand still clutching Sarah.

"Did you find Alex yet?" Chuck asked hesitantly, yet anxiously.

"No," Casey growled furiously, clenching his fist and scowling.

"Do you have any idea where he might be?" Sarah inquired, mind racing.

Chuck shook his head. "They separated us. All I know is SCORPIA called—they wanted me and Alex. But I don't know why Volkoff would leave me behind." Chuck looked at Casey and Sarah in despair. "We need to find Alex."

"We will Chuck," Sarah assured him. "Casey won't let him down," she whispered in Chuck's ear and the two of them followed the "hardened" spy out of the room. They both were able to see that Casey would do whatever it took to retrieve Alex—no matter what the personal cost.

[][][][][][][][][]

Grinning at the live feeds he had placed in the lab, Alexei Volkoff watched the three agents; he walked over to his captive. The boy, Alex Rider, had put up one hell of a fight, but Volkoff wanted the boy to see what his teammates were doing to locate him—which in turn would cause the agents to walk right into the man's hands.

"I want you to know, dear lad," Volkoff announced as he turned to face the bloodied and battered teenager bound to the chair in front of him, "that by attempting to rescue you, the Intersect and his handlers are playing right into my trap. My dear boy, you will be the cause of their downfall, and possibly death. How does that feel?"

The man smiled gleefully as Alex spat muffled curses behind his gag. Volkoff had been forced to muzzle the teen after the boy insulted every possible thing about Volkoff, his family, his ideas, sanity, and whatever else the boy had come up with. The usually calm man had been unable to deal with the stream of curses, and finally had put an end to the annoying and incessant chatter. Even the though the boy was unable to verbally respond to Volkoff's jibe, his eyes narrowed in anger; Volkoff only laughed and ignore the child.

The devil himself would have been envious of the look of pure hatred that Alex gave Volkoff as the man sat down, whistling as he watched the screens.

* * *

**I am so so so sorry for the long delay- graduation and finals and APs were just overwhelming. I also got sidetracked by my other writing project, and I'd love it if you checked it out (it's called "The Damian Effect" and it spans different series-please see my profile and let me know what you think. **

**Pretty pretty pretty please REVIEW! :) **


	25. Chapter 25

Needless to say, Beckman was not happy at all. Here she was being loan one of Britain's top assets, and he was kidnapped under her very nose. Reporting this to Joe Byrne, head of the CIA, had only served to create more tension between the NSA and CIA. Damn that Rider child.

Beckman still was appalled at the tone and way Rider used to speak with her at Castle the first time that she had met him. Byrne had warned her that the agent would be young, but she would never have guessed that a teenager would be one of the best MI6 agents out in the field. Not to mention, she wanted a spy who knew his place—like the army, where good soldiers didn't question orders and simply did as they were told. Instead of a willing and obedient teenage agent, Beckman got a teenager full of attitude and authority problems.

The General sighed. Even though she was not a fan of Agent Rider, she couldn't deny his results. And that's why she fought against her gut instinct of sending the rude child back to the states and figuring out another way to gather information, she didn't. It would only serve to offend MI6, and they were prideful enough as is.

Cursing colorfully, she checked in with Agent John Casey was shocked to her some good news—Chuck, the intersect had been found. Of course, good, positive new like that always came with a price—the bad news. The frustrating and devastating news that Alex Rider was still missing and most likely still Volkoff's prisoner. Unless of course the man got tired of the brat's cutting remarks and insults and kill the boy. But Beckman was going to be optimistic and not think nor dwell on that particular scenario.

General Beckman took a sip of her coffee, wishing she had something stronger—like scotch. Or whiskey. Or anything that would help her get her mind off this terrible awful mess she found herself in. As she drained her cup, she prayed to god that Rider and Volkoff were found soon.

[][][][][][][][][][][][]

Volkoff liked to play games. That's what Casey had deduced. The madmen enjoyed toying with them, watching them spin around in circles as they attempted to find Alex. He and Sarah had knocked out henchmen at every turn, as the Intersect and two seasoned agents scurried around in the maze-like facility.

"Walker—got anything?" Casey asked for what felt like the hundredth time. Sarah shook her head in the negative, a frown on her face. Chuck too, sported a depressed look on his face. Casey was sure that his expression was a mirror of Chuck's, even though the senior agent was desperately trying to hide his worry.

"He has to have left his something!" Chuck cried out, slamming his fist into the wall, the wincing with the pain that he received from his action. "Volkoff's too crazy not to have some insane reason and plan in place!"

"How right you are Charles," a British voice echoed through the halls. "This is my game. A labyrinth for the spies, if you will. I got the idea after finding out a little bit of the organization calling themselves Perseus. That's the image I showed you Charles, I'm afraid I need the information that the NSA and CIA have on them before I act. You know how I detest not knowing everything. And, well, since you wouldn't talk, I'm giving you some incentive. I have your spy child here with me; neither he nor I am impressed with your attempts to find him so far, but perhaps if you know the stakes, you'll be the spies Alex needs."

Casey cursed under his breath and clenched his hands tightly into fists, ready to beat Volkoff so he never had to hear the man's voice again.

"So while you enjoy the challenges I've cooked up, borrow a similar idea from Perseus, know that Alex will be handed over to SCORPIA if you don't save him. And just so we're clear—they want to torture and kill him as slowly and painfully as possible. I hear it's one of the most heartbreaking things in the world, to hear a child scream. I'll make sure I record it so you hear every howl. Goodbye now, agents."

Silence encompassed the three shell-shocked adults; it was finally broken with a string of loud explicatives from Casey. Sarah was muttering some very unladylike things under her breath and Chuck had one of the most vicious looks he'd ever had on his face.

Wordlessly, the three agents returned to their search with even more vigor than before.

[][][][][][][][]

Alex listened to each work Volkoff spoke, his hatred for the man only growing as he watched the change in expressions of Sarah, John, and Chuck as Volkoff's speech went on. Alex admitted to himself that he was terrified—he did not want to fall back into SCORPIA's hands. He knew that he'd wind up dead; with the trouble he had caused the organization he wouldn't be surprised if they mailed his head to Blunt, just to rub it in the Head of MI6's face. Alex shuddered, refusing to think about dying. He was getting out of this madhouse. Alive. Back to Jack. And Tom. He would make it out of here alive and only slightly bruised—then he would help Casey, Sarah, and Chuck capture Volkoff. He would not lead the older agents to their death. He was not giving up.

The entire time Alex had been bound in the room, he had been trying to figure a way to escape. Eyes narrowing and a semi-solid idea springing to mind, Alex allowed a half-grin to creep across his face. The smirk only widened when he heard Chuck's voice through the cameras Volkoff planted everywhere in the building.

"Casey! Sarah!" the Intersect called elatedly, "I think I found something!"

* * *

**I am so so so so sorry for the amount of time it has taken me to finally upload/work on this story. I hope you can forgive me and hopefully you enjoyed this chapter.**

**please review! thanks :)**


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